4772/Another You: Dealing With Yourself

Another You: Dealing With Yourself
Date of Scene:	17 January 2021
Location:	Labs - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Donna, Terry and Gar talk about the Titans, and how they are going to deal with the Doppelganger crisis.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Gar Logan, Donna Troy

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Terry O'Neil has posed:
The laboratory is starting to look positively lived-in. Aside from the obvious fact that there is a bed where there really shouldn't be, there are also books on the table as well as Terry's laptop, and a few odds and ends. He spends most of his time in the lab, just in case Gar needs anything, and usually treks to the Planet were done using Rabbit Holes when needed.

He hasn't used one of those in the last few days, but the redhead hasn't quite gotten around to telling Gar precisely why it is.

Terry walks into the lab, freshly showered and garbed in a fresh shift of a white turtleneck and jeans, a fresh load of towels in tow in case Gar needs to step out of the tank.

"Gar?" he says softly. If Gar is sleeping, he doesn't want to take him.

Gar Logan has posed:
Eat.

Sleep.

One would almost think Gar had the art of being a cat mastered, except for one thing: all that time spent in the water. Oh, some felines enjoy a bath or shower, but most are content to avoid the water unless they're thirsty.

The all-green, all-the-time Titan is treading water again, doing some exercises in the tank as he rebuilds some of the strength that had been lacking after barely grasping to life before the rescue.

o/` And we'll all float on okay o/`

The fins and frills trail in the water in the wake of the shifter's motions, for he's in hybrid form again. There isn't a ton of evidence of further regrowth, maybe another inch or so past the elbow, but it's progress. "Yo," he says, pausing to look over toward Terry.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Hey," Terry says, walking closer to the tank after dropping the towels on a nearby chair. "How are things in GarLand?"

He rests both hands on the edge of the tank, leaning in. "We've got a new prospective member by the name of Wiccan. He's a wizard, in case the name didn't tip you off," Terry says conversationally, dipping a hand into the water of the tank and idly swishing his fingers about.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan comes over to curl his hands over the edge of the tank as well, webbed fingers still there. "I'm starting to understand what it must have been like in Waterworld," he says. Was that a joke? Because Gar joking again is probably a good thing at this point.

"A new member? Just like that? What's the story there?" he wonders, head angling toward one side. His mood, right now, is not the easiest to discern. Some things are being kept neutral.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"He showed up in a suit and tie and with a resume, if you can believe it," Terry says, keeping things neutral, "But I recognized the moniker as one that has kept popping up in reports sent to the Planet. He wants to be part of the team and it won't hurt to have one magic person around who doesn't put existential fear on people... so he's on the tryout stage now."

He splashes a little with his hand, and turns his head. The bruise on his right cheek has healed up well. It was inescapable, so he told Gar the truth: that Robin had whacked him with a batarang after he had joked about Robin's height with Red Robin.

Which was, you know, better than strangers shooting at him.

"How's the water?" he asks, looking up at Gar. "You seem awful lonesome in there. I could join you for a swim," he says with a little smile, trying to gauge the green Titan's emotional state.

Gar Logan has posed:
"I've never heard of someone doing that before," Gar answers, shaking his head at the mental image of someone showing up like that. "It's like Mormons going door to door, just different. But..yeah, if that means we have a friendly magic-user around...I just hope Raven can cope. Sometimes I get a little tired of all the brooding. I mean, I get it, your dad's a demon. But most of the time, she hardly even gives anyone a chance to get through all the walls she's got up."

Did something get into him now that he's been down here with so much time to think about everything?

Then he shrugs. "It's water. It's wet. I was thinking of hopping out for a little while, but staying like this. Have you talked to Nadia yet? I thought the whole idea was a done deal already." His expression is more toward irritated, his words clipped, blunt.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry is taken aback a little by the bluntness. "That's what I was coming to tell you, honey," he says quietly, "I spoke to her and she's fine with it. She'll walk us through everything and we'll set a date to go in and set up, and she and Caitlin will leave us to your therapy."

He slides his hand along the tank to rest on top of Gar's. "I'm sorry it took me this long, it's been hard to get a hold of Nadia in the lab combined with... you know. Things."

Like beating up Nick's doppelganger. He's saving that story for later.

He frowns, and on the spot he slides off his turtleneck and begins undoing his jeans, kicking off his shoes after stepping on their heels. Apparently he was serious in his offer.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan's hand is tense. "We don't need to set a date. We need to do it today. Tonight. But before tomorrow." If there's a reason, he isn't elaborating just yet. "She's been in there the whole time, right? I could have just gone over and told her what we needed. We could be in there already."

But as Terry starts to shed his clothing, the more amphibious Gar makes good on what he said he was going to do, moving to haul himself up out of the tank, spilling some of the water around him in the process. His bad arm is used to brace himself against the tank while he uses the good one to help guide him, and he lands carefully as more water runs down to the floor.

He adds, "Sorry, but I'm not in a touchy-feely mood right now. We have things to do. I have to get better."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry frowns, "And it's Nadia's lab, so we have to do it when she is ready to have us. I don't think you quite realize that this will require an expenditure of Pym particles, equipment, and we'll be setting up shop in a place that's her personal retreat. I know you want to get better, but you also have to realize she's allowing us to do this." He crosses his arms over his bare chest, looking at Gar. "Most people who lose a limb- that's it, Gar. You're fortunate that you have powers that can help fix that, and a family that's going to do what they can to make it happen. Yeah... you just went through hell. I know. I'm sorry..."

He bends over and starts grabbing his discarded turtleneck. "... but you weren't the only one," he says quietly.

Gar Logan has posed:
The words go in one ear and out the other.

No, that isn't true.

The words go in and stay there, most of them processed by a very stubborn Beast Boy, who does not appear to be in the right frame of mind for logic and sensibility right now.

"Yeah, I know. I know that I got ambushed by my double, just an evil version of me, and I didn't even have a chance to think clearly enough to fight back, and he left me for dead in the ocean and that should have been enough, but it wasn't. And I was down there just trying to hang on while you thought I was dead, and you were getting fooled by a..a screwed up version of the person you care about the most, and everyone else had to deal with that too. And then you guys found me, and now we have a chance to make things better, and we have to do it as soon as possible."

The expression on his face becomes one Terry is more accustomed to, because he drops the hybrid form, remaining in just the bike shorts, and returns to normal so he can step up close to Terry. The expression is cold, determined, and, for him, frightening.

"Because I'm going to find that bastardized version of me, I'm not going to give him another chance to surprise me, and I'm going to tear his fucking throat out for what he did to all of us," he says, barely above a whisper. "I've already thought of a hundred different ways to kill him."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry stares at Gar with wide eyes and for several long seconds, he says nothing at all.

But then he lowers his chin and narrows his eyes slightly, with a tight set of his jaw. "So that's how it's going to be? One, two, three, you'll be a murderer now? An executioner? You want to snuff someone out in a fit of rage and hatred like /Robin/?" and then he raises his head, "Like /Colette?/, because that's what Colette told me to do. Exactly."

Gar Logan has posed:
The retort barely fazes Gar, hardly even slows him down. "Isn't that how it has to be sometimes? If the threat is bad enough, you do what you have to? Whatever means necessary? Robin's supposed to be our leader, right? If it's good enough for him, who am I to say otherwise? Do you know what it feels like to have your arm torn off? To have your body shredded like..like paper? I do. It hurts, dude. It hurts a whole lot." And the effects of that pain are breaking free after a number of days of slow progress.

Yes, it seems there is a path to healing the physical wounds. The mental side? That's coming out as another story. "I'm not gonna let him kill anyone else. Whatever happened to that world, it's ruined. If that means I have to put him down, who's gonna stop me? You saw what he can do. I can do all of that too. I just never have." His good hand cuts through the air with a gesture. "Everyone thinks I'm just the guy who jokes around all the time, who never takes anything seriously. Well, I've never felt more serious about anything else in my life. Funny what happens when you come a breath from being dead, huh?" The room hasn't grown dark. It's just Gar.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry tenses up like a whip, his knuckles turning white.

Not that you can notice, because he's pale AF. "If you go through with this... you can't come back from that. There's a difference between killing as a last resort and coming in ready to kill from the get-go. If you become /him/... was it worth the price?"

"And you talk as if I don't know that road. I almost /killed/ him, Gar. He couldn't stop me! It took Wonder Woman to stop me... I was powerful!" he suddenly snarls, his hands clenching like claws, "I was /strong/ and I became something /fucking terrifying/. I pulled a /fucking sword/ out of my goddamned ass and I was going to /end/ the motherfucker!"

He turns around and paces away from Gar, fuming. "And if I had gone on with it, I'd have been no better than the guy whom I thought took the person I loved the most out."

He turns around, and pins Gar with an intense green-eyed stare. "And now, he's still trying to do that. Because if you go in resolved to nothing but murder him, and you succeed... he'll have won. He will have killed the man I love... because Garfield Logan is not a cold-blooded murderer!"

He doesn't realize that his voice is growing louder and louder. Someone might hear this, down the lab.

His eyes glisten, but no tears fall yet. "And that'll be it. I'll no longer be a Titan. Because I can't. Not after that."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Knock knock!" It's more warning than request, but Donna does leave a respectable amount of time between calling the words out from the far side of the door and peering around the door. "Hey guys. You decent?"

    Having already determined that they are, Donna enters, giving Gar a broad grin. "I'd say you're looking well, Gar. But that would be overstating the case. You're looking better though, which is a relief. Cat causing you any trouble? If not we better check he's not really a doppelganger."

    Donna gives Terry a quick wink. She's looking somewhat windswept, a sure sign she has just arrived back at the tower after journeying back from New York, which she has been doing a lot of lately. She gives no sign of having heard the raised voices and emotional outbursts of the conversation so far, though it's hard to judge anything from that. She's as good at overhearing things you might not have wanted her to as she is at not mentioning she's overheard them, at least until some later time when it will achieve maximum embarrassment.

Gar Logan has posed:
Whether or not Donna heard any of the words, she's going to get much of Gar's reaction, because it's brewing, and it's bubbling, and it's on the path to boiling over.

"I could have saved my parents if I thought faster. I as good as killed them myself," he says, and whether the logic is sound or not, imagine going years thinking it was your fault your parents died, even if it wasn't, all because you decided you might have had the chance to save them if you didn't lock up in the moment. Ignore the fact you were just seven.

But when you're Garfield Logan, you've had a history of freezing up when the stakes were at their highest, haven't you? You've let fear interrupt instinct and natural reaction, and it's left others in danger. The latest time, it almost led to you dying.

"Maybe you should have killed him. Maybe it would have been a mercy." He looks completely confused at the mention of a sword, but aside from that showing in his face for a moment it goes untouched for now.

He meets Terry's eyes, and there's a hard set to them that shows the level of his convictions. There's revenge in this, absolutely, but there's something more beyond just a desire. It shows as a need. "It's not that I want to kill him. It's that I have to. I can't send /that/ anywhere else, knowing what he's willing to do. He treated me like I was nothing, like I was just junk to be thrown away without a second thought, then he pretended to be me to get at the rest of you. So, yeah, maybe you and Robin should have dealt with him when you had the chance, because now I'm going to have to."

It's at that point he realizes Donna has entered, and as he looks over a shoulder at her, there is a conflicting range of emotions crossing his eyes and the rest of his features. There's a grimace that follows. "It's..not a good time, Donna. It's really not a good time."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry starts to reply, the color rising to his cheeks, "You were /seven/ years old!" he knows, since he was part of that shared memory, "You can't possibly-"

His voice drops when Donna comes in, realizing she probably heard him nearly yelling. Reddening from embarrassment. He hastily slips his turtleneck on and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Hey Donna..." he says quietly, not looking at the Amazon.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "The best time is when it's not a good time," Donna says firmly, letting the cryptic nature of the comment stand on its own. She carefully clears a spot on one of the lab tables and sits on the corner, looking at the two younger Titans.

    "It's an argument Nightwing and I had a lot in the past, you know," Donna starts. "The bats - with the exception of our current one, apparently - have firm rules about killing. Amazons are rather more flexible on that topic. We believe that there are times when it is simply, if unfortunately, the correct course of action to take." Either she overheard more than she was letting on or the content of Gar's final outburst was sufficient. "It's not an argument that ever really ended, partially because both viewpoints deal with a complicated subject coming from fundamentally the same notion - that life is sacred."

    "We Amazons believe that every life is a gift of Gaia, and to decide that gift should be confiscated is a decision that should never be taken lightly. And yet there are situations where failing to do so could mean more of Gaia's light is lost. This is why we will kill without hesitation if we know we must, but we will avoid killing if we possibly can."

    Donna picks up a tablet that's on the table beside her and starts studying the screen, scrolling through the notes on it. She continues, her tone conversational. "Everyone deserves compassion, without exception. When we go to war - against the Warzoon, for example - we often find ourselves in a situation where there is little choice left to us, because our enemy has already made the choice for us. Even then, our actions must be taken with compassion and sorrow, because while the soul we kill might be beyond help, our own certainly is not. That is about the immediate threat of the moment, though. When there is a choice, compassion should make us consider the things that have driven our enemy to be where they are. The pain they have suffered, that has driven /them/ to wish to kill. We can only know our own demons, but that should be sufficient to remind us that every other person has their own fights to make. Perhaps they were simply not as fortunate as we were."

Gar Logan has posed:
"I just watched them drown, Terry. If I turned into a dolphin or something else, and I let them hold on to me, I could have got them to shore and then they'd still be here!" Gar blurts, as a wetness develops around his eyes. Hindsight is crystal clear, even when you were only a child at the time, and this has always been one of his most private pieces of knowledge. "Every night since you guys found me, I've had nightmares. Me watching them die. Me watching Doomsday destroy us. Me watching that..that other me tear me apart."

He fights a shudder, but the shiver is palpable. It's not that the lab is cold, or that he's underdressed. It's the terror he's felt before, returning, magnified.

The only thing he adds, after Donna's given her perspective, is, "See? She knows. If there's no other way, sometimes you have to do it. If he won't give himself up, if he tries to kill me or anyone else, I'm gonna have to outsmart him and be faster, and be stronger, and be better. I can't let him hurt you. Any of you. Not again. That's why I have to get..this..better." The stump is held up, not so much waved around but left there as a reminder. "That's why the faster Nadia can do this, the faster we can come back and do what we have to before he attacks anyone else. I know how he thinks. I know what he's gonna do. I know because he's me without..without any limits."

Which is kind of what Terry was trying to say.

He wraps his arms around himself, trying to stare at the floor.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry closes his eyes and shakes his head slowly. "... there are lines that I won't cross. And if you're telling me that Garfield Logan can't figure out how to take himself down without killing... I don't believe you."

He opens his eyes. "I am the weakest of the Titans and yet I incapacitated him. You're giving up. Giving in to the fear. And you'll go down a road that... I can't follow you down, Gar."

He bends over and grabs his sneakers. "...then I guess I should go. Since my Doppelganger is out there and has half of my powers now," wait, what? "I guess I should just... go and find him and kill him without mercy. Because we can just abandon our limits now just because our enemies have."

He starts walking towards Donna and the door, his eyes burning.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives a nod of her head when Gar responds to what she is saying as support for his stance, but when he has finished she adds, rather firmly, "IF it is necessary. We are not at that point yet. And as you say Gar, you are the one who knows him best, and has the best insight into what he is thinking. But there's something you have forgotten."

    Donna puts an arm out to bar Terry's way - symbolically, at least. She's still seated and it would be easy enough for him to walk past. "And you've forgotten the same thing, Terry. As did Robin. I do not blame any of you because this is a tough situation to deal with. These are enemies that are very personal, in a way that those who we fight generally are not. Maybe I am the one who is at fault, because I have not been around enough lately."

    "You're all forgetting that we are a /team/. Where did you get it into your heads that your doppelgangers are your responsibility? They are /our/ responsibility. Because we help each other out, because we have each other's backs. Or at least we are supposed to. That is the Titans way, yet people seem to be intent on trying to hunt down their own doppelgangers on their own. We are supposed to be a team. A /family/."

    "Gar is right, he's the best equipped to know what his own doppelganger is likely to do. Same is true for you, Terry. Apparently you've both forgotten that works both ways. Gar, you are the /last/ person who should fight your own doppelganger, because he knows your moves. Same for you, Terry. You should both be helping the /team/ to deal with this problem with the insight that you have. And when the /team/ deals with the problems, your doppelgangers are outnumbered and outpowered, and we can deal with them from the position of strength that means we /can/ give them mercy, we /can/ give them the compassion we would hope we were given if we had suffered the torments and tortures they have in that world. I have seen the world your doppelgangers were raised in, and for all the hurt they have done to my friends, I feel nothing for either of them but pity. Think of what you have suffered in your lives and multiply that by ten." Donna shakes her head. "Don't they deserve our pity? Don't they deserve our mercy? Wouldn't you, in their shoes?"

Gar Logan has posed:
"I'm not saying I can't do it without killing," Gar begins, making an effort to control his emotions better. He's a lot more pleasant when he's bottling it all up inside, rather than letting it out in a nearly uncontrolled burst. "And you're a lot tougher than I think you know."

At that moment, Donna is not the only one to reach out for Terry after he's turned to go. So does Gar, and it's with a growing lump in his throat, but he forgets it's with the arm that's yet to finish regrowing so there's an awkward moment where he waves at Terry and misses, then nudges at his back with the stump as if pawing at him.

"Uh, what do mean yours has half of your powers?" he asks, like that's stopped him in his tracks. How does that even work?

Donna's talk, sensible as it is, conflicts with everything he's been feeling since the conversation began. No, since before it began, because while he was doing his aquatic exercises, it was weighing heavily on him and with nobody around at the time to discuss it with, the thoughts began to fester and worsen as if they were an open wound that went untreated. He scratched at it, made it worse, and it left Terry thinking he would have to go.

"You can't leave. Look, I'll..we'll..we'll find a way. If what you're saying is true.." He takes in Donna with this, his brows scrunched up in doubt, whether self-doubt or just general doubt, and adds, "I haven't been feeling like we're much of a team since you guys were missing. There hasn't been a whole lot of leadership. We were kind of just, I dunno, drifting through stuff. Yeah, we can stop them as a team, but I'm gonna have a moment with mine. I'm gonna make sure he knows how badly he screwed up."

Pity? Mercy? He has to admit, "What exactly..happened to them? I don't think I got all of that." He did miss quite a few days while on the bottom of the sea.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry is stopped in his tracks by Donna's crossing guard arm, and by Gar nudging him in the back. A lump forms in his throat as well and he says nothing while Donna speaks, and Gar speaks. When Gar asks him how is his situation even possible, he answers "Oh god... don't make me tell you right now..." in a strained voice. He's welled up with emotion, yes, but god are the circumstances behind that embarrassing.

Then again, he can't hide the truth from Gar. And they need to know.

"... the other me broke in on me and Harley while we were talking and..." there was the briefest of moments where his voice drops to almost inaduible levels "afterwemadeout" back to normal levels "he held a gun to my stomach. Couldn't grab my mirror. And I figured... we have the same eyes. We're the same person. So I said the words."

He glances at Donna and Gar.

"So... I can only do illusions and animate things. He has my Rabbit Holes now. And I guess the sword."


He slowly turns to Gar, brushing at his eyes, "Gar... you are good. You're one of the kindest, most loving people. I just can't... I can't let you destroy yourself. Donna is right. We're all family. You are /my/ family. I want us to..."

He drops off, realizing what almost came out of him, and instead he just rubs at his eyes and looks at Donna, as Gar asks Auntie Amazon for storytime.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Their world was conquered by a monster, Gar," Donna says quietly. "Two decades before they were born. The people of that world were infected with a psychic virus that enslaves them to their conquerer. That fills them with rage and robs them of compassion. They lived their entire lives in a world that had no pity for them, no sympathy. Where death could come to anyone at a moment's notice, and where the best way of surviving was being alone."

    Donna puts the tablet down again with a sigh. "If anyone thinks that the cruelty they have inflicted on you is deserving of /revenge/, they should remember that what you want revenge on them for is what they have been driven to by a lifetime of pain and a psychic toxin that has driven them mad. They seek to hurt us because it is what the voice of ZZGU has told them their entire lives to do, and because they have never had the chance to know that love is even an alternative. We can cure them of the psychic toxin, but the pain they have suffered their entire lives will take much longer to heal than your severed arm, Gar. There is a chance for them though. In their own world. There is a chance for all of them, but they need our help."

    Donna sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose and walks to the door to lean against the frame. "This team doesn't need my leadership," she says to the wall. "It doesn't need anyone's. I'm sorry that I have given people the impression that I was the leader here. I'm a strategist, and we need that in the field. But strategy doesn't make for a family. Strategy isn't heart. Doesn't make people want to be part of something bigger, or make them..." she gives a quick shake of her head. "Make them remember that they are not alone. You weren't lacking in strategists when we were stuck in space, Gar. But maybe you forgot that you were a family. I've let you believe the team needed someone like me Gar, when I should have been helping you realize it needed you."

Gar Logan has posed:
Somewhere along the way, Gar finds a seat nearby and his shoulders simply slump, slowly sagging. "Damn," is all he can find the words to say, initially. Make that, word.

Counterparts, alternate versions of themselves, taken over by a malevolent entity, directing them down paths most of them would have never taken if they had free will. And now they're here, trying to spread that disease while still not having a say in the matter.

"We just..I mean, I don't even know what to say to all that," he continues, before looking over toward Terry. "You actually made out with yourself and when you changed, he got your portals?"

/That's/ what's got him so floored? Well, no. Not only that, but it's the first thing he could say that had anything to do with Terry's revelation before focusing more on Donna's information.

Gar sighs. "Then we have to capture them, and cure them if you say we can do that, and..maybe they can do something with that. But maybe you should be the leader. Robin's..look, I'm not gonna tell you everything because part of it was a private moment, but the two of us had a fight while you were all missing, and we learned something about each other and I guess he respects me now. But I don't know if he's the best one to lead the Titans. I know I'm not, but maybe I can do more. I just wanted to get everyone back together because I had this emptiness inside me that I needed to fill with something familiar, that meant something good. I figured maybe we'd have a little reunion and everyone would go on with their own stuff again. I never thought it would turn into all of this."

The floor has become captivating to stare at.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Not important right now," Terry hastily says, when Gar asks him the question, "We're not talking about that right now."

If he has his way, 'right now' would be indefinitely extended.

"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, Garfield. Like you, I didn't know if the Titans would get back together for good or not. I wanted it to work out beause it meant so much to you. And now, it means that much to me, too."

He takes a few steps closer to Gar and reaches to grab his one hand. "Donna is right. This isn't about who claims he or she is leading or not, this is about which way we're facing. I'm... I'm sorry I got mad," he says quietly, "I... didn't really mean to leave for good. I just felt... that's what I would have to do. If you destroyed yourself with hatred. Gar I need you... to be you."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna turns back around to look at the pair of younger Titans, but she stays leaning against the door frame to do it. "I don't think anyone thought it would turn into this, Gar. I know I didn't." She smiles a little, shaking her head. "Cait had been telling me for years to stop moping around Themyscira and come and see you all. Assuring me that you didn't all blame me for what happened. So eventually I did. I expected I'd get here and find you all one by one, say sorry for not being there when you needed me. That I'd make things up to at least some of you, that maybe we'd all go back to the tower for a meal or something, and then..." she thinks for a few moments then shrugs. "I'm not sure."

    "I left Themyscira at the end of '19. I was going to spend six months wandering the world before hitting America. I was in Rome for a few days, organizing getting back to Syria as an attachment to a UN peacekeeping force, when I read about the Titans getting back together in a newspaper. So I dropped everything and came here, and you know the rest. It hasn't stopped happening since. There has barely been time to breathe. I wasn't expecting any of this. I didn't know if anyone would even /want/ me back, let alone have people thinking of me as the leader of the team. But we don't /have/ leaders."

    "I can assess a situation quickly and come up with a plan on the spot. Nightwing was great at that too, and it's important. We'll always need that, and Robin is /good/ at that. I talk to Robin a lot, I think I've got a pretty good insight into him. And Gar, if it took you two to have a fight to respect each other, then great. Whatever it takes. Robin is a troubled kid, but he's smart, and he's an asset to this team. When it comes to that field stuff, people should listen to him more than they do."

    "But that's not leadership of the team. Robin isn't that. Look, it's useful having someone like me or Cait out there kind of looking to other people like we're the leader, because people will listen to us, because we're not going to let people talk down to us, because we've had the experience of dealing with the media and all that stuff. But... /we/ know that's not it. I'm a leader, like you are Gar, like you are, Terry. We're all leaders to a greater or lesser degree on this team, because we /listen to each other/. We're friends. We're family."

    "Robin is a genius at field tactics. Terry, you have a hell of a brain on you when you're not trying to convince yourself you're a nobody, and you bring original thinking and planning to the team. Kate is a fantastic organizer and is good at herding people in the right direction. Gar, you bring people together and remind them of who they are, and you pick them up when they are down. These are all leadership qualities, and what makes us a great team is that where one of us is weak, someone else is strong. But that requires us all to be what we can be. Don't expect me to lead. Or Robin, or Kate. Both of you are leaders too. If you try."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan goes to run a hand through his hair and rub at one of his ears, then he starts over with the correct side. Still not used to /that/ part missing. Still feels like it ought t be there.

"The Titans means everything to me. The Doom Patrol is..well, kind of family, but I sort of forced my way in and wouldn't take no for an answer. But the Titans is the first group of people more my age that I felt like I actually fit in with. That's why I need the Titans, because the Titans are a part of me. It's like, nWo for life? No, dude. Titans for life," he explains, his hand slipping into Terry's by this point.

Donna's efforts to encourage and talk up, a bit, what she sees as the best points of a few of them earns a slight smile out of him, but his mood isn't all the way better yet. There are still things he's got to get through for proper healing on all fronts. "Maybe we don't need to talk about leader stuff right now, and just focus on working better as a team. I still have to get better first, so I can help. I'm kinda starting to like my hybrid look, too."

Then he gives Terry's hand enough of a possessive squeeze that it's clear he isn't letting go right now. "And figure out how to get you back together the right way, too. I can't believe you did that with yourself. I'm gonna have to remind you what you saw in me, I guess." There's a lot to see anyway, still in just the black shorts.

"We should get something to eat." That's more like Gar.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You idiot," Terry says softly, and smirks, "You can blame Rictor and Donna for that. They were going on about how the first thing you'd do if you met your double would be to make out with them-- I panicked and I thought it'd be a good distraction. And he went for it... it turns out, because he had a gun. But I tried to think outside the box!"

He smiles, "I don't need any reminders. Who could ever forget you?" he leans in slightly, and nods. "We should get something to eat. Donna, want to join us... in the kitchen? I'd take us somewhere but... Gar's in his shorts. And no Rabbit Holes."

Yeah. They were going to have to fix that. No telling what his doppelganger was doing with his rabbit holes.




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SOMEWHERE IN BROOKLYN
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"What's the matter with you?" the Other Vorpal says, hanging out of the Rabbit hole, by the drive-through window, from which a young woman stares with wide eyes. "Do I need to shout my order all over again?"