5051/=With His Tail Between His Legs.

=With His Tail Between His Legs.
Date of Scene:	06 February 2021
Location:	Medical Labs
Synopsis:	Terry delivers a plushy Cheshire to the bedside of Diana, and remembers he's in a team.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Terry O'Neil

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    "...So you picked quite a time to catch up on your sleep, Di," Donna says, busying herself around the room - plumping pillows, straightening drapes, refreshing the water in a vase of flowers and a host of other meaningless little tasks. "I mean with you and Kal both out of the picture, we just better hope nothing too big decides to happen. Doomsday mark two happens we're kinda fu... um. Sorry Di."

    Donna stops by Diana's bed and glances down guiltily at her sleeping sister, as if expecting she will waken from her coma to tut at the word she almost said, but Diana remains asleep. Donna stands there for a few moments, then sighs and sits down in the chair by the bed. "Cassie's kind of... She's frustrated. I mean that's sort of normal for Cassie, but not having her powers at a time like this, that's really hard on her. This guy... Diesel. I think that's kind of keeping Cassie sane. She's so outraged at her doppelganger's poor taste and general sleeziness that it helps keep her mind of worrying about her mother. So... Cambodia. What do you think? Should I go and look for her there? I can't just leave Cassie here on her own, but bringing her along... doesn't seem like a good idea. Probably I should take Cassie home, she'd be safe there. But I can't imagine Cassie would be happy with me. She's a fighter."

    Donna smiles a bit, but then the smile fades. "I could really do with your advice, sister. Or a little bit of the wisdom of Athena. Maybe in a few hundred years, huh? You know I used to think it was crazy you weren't leading the League when everyone thought Kal was dead, but who'd want a job like that, huh? You were wise to stay out of it."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It's Terry's first time inside the Hall of Justice- and it's not something he would have ever thought possible in the past. And, if things continue in their current course, it won't be possible in the future. But there are other things to consider, and things that weigh on him so much that he doesn't really have time to wonder at the things he's seeing.

After verifying his identity, his Titans chaperone leaves him in the care of the Hallers, and they in turn direct him to the medical wing.

As he comes in, he stops by the door. He had heard Donna talking to someone, but he had assumed it was someone of a vaguely medical persuasion, not a patient.

He's dressed entirely in black, with a heavy turtleneck, pants and even a scarf. He has not taken the scarf off inside, despite the heating systems. In his hand, he cradles some sort of stuffed animal, obscured in part by his sleeves.

"... Donna?" he says quietly.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Terry?" Donna's voice calls from inside the room. A few moments later the door opens, and Donna looks at him, checks his finger for the anti-doppel dot, and then looks past him. "/Einai en taxei, lochargos Melantha./", she says. "Mene to xylos sos." There's a sound behind Terry of someone moving away. He hadn't heard them approach.

    Donna steps back into the room, leaving the door open. "She's... she looks better," she says to Terry. "But she isn't -- she hasn't woken yet. Come on in. I know she would be cheered to know that you looked in on her, Terry. She is rather fond of you, you know."

    She pulls the chair a little further away from Diana's bed, picks up the lasso that had been resting on top of the sheets to hang it from her belt, and sits back down in the chair. "Thank you for helping out with those... whatever they were that Cassie's doppelganger brought with her. I would keep out of Caitlin's way for a few days though. Hopefully she will forgive you when she figures out it means she'll get a new set of pans." The amazon gives Terry a faint grin and a wink.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry never even saw the Amazons. Of course, that was intentional. The redhead looks... well, washed out is too generous a term. Throughout most of Donna's words, he seems to not register them at all, but then a slow nod indicates that he does, indeed, hear what she's saying. He's just not... particularly energetic.

"How... are the two of you doing?" he asks quietly, taking a few steps closer into the room. He glances over at Diana and frowns, and looks away slowly to look over at Donna.

He has that expression he gets, when he wants to say something but the words aren't quite arranging themselves correctly. "I talked to Rae earlier."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna stares at Terry for a few moments, then nods her head. "And yet here you are, still alive," she says with a flat voice. "She didn't eat your soul. What's left of it. Or maybe that's because you have ginger hair. You know, the South Park thing. "

    She turns away, looking back to Diana, who is sleeping peacefully. "Apparently Mark Twain like to claim that while the rest of humanity was descended from apes, red-heads are actually descended from cats. That would explain quite a lot. Did you know that Menelaus had red hair? True fact."

    Donna looks back, tilting her head. She looks tired. "I assume that Rae told you that you should stop running around like a spring fox?" She asks. "Well, probably not those words. That's not a phrase you have here. Oh yes, headless chicken. That's a pretty good phrase too, to be honest."

    Donna keeps staring at Terry for a few moments longer -- then breaks into a small smile. "Come on Terry. Say hi to Diana, grab the chair over there, sit down, and tell me what's on your mind."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry nods slowly, "... I actually knew that. Mom used to joke about it all the time," he says, referring to the line from Mark Twain. "... she doesn't think it's that funny anymore." Now he smiles, just a little.

Let's just say that the conversation where Terry relayed the information of who he was, and who his father was, to his mother was... interesting. Back when he came back from Space.

Taking Donna's lead, he approaches Diana. Seeing her like this is hard, very hard. "Hey Diana..." he says quietly. He has heard that, sometimes, people in a coma can hear you. He doesn't know if this is true or not, as he has never had the chance to verify this... but then he thinks of something. "... I just wanted to let you know that if you don't wake up soon... I'm going to steal your tiara. I look good in it."

And then he takes out what looks like a little Cheshire cat plushy out of his sleeves. It actually matches his coloration, as more vendors seem to have picked up on the fact that A Certain Studio's Version was /not/ color-accurate. This one has something a little extra, though. It has a tiny Wonder Woman tiara sown on top of its head. He places the toy by the bedside and then he sits on the free chair. "Menelaus had red hair? He probably dyed it," he says with a little smirk. "... I didn't really do anything during the attack. I took one mook down and wrecked Cait's kitchen suppliesm as you said. The truth is..." he sighs and closes his eyes. "The truth is I'm so very sorry. And yes. You are right about what Raven said. Though not in so many words. And he advised me not to take that stage magician's advice, because nobody who goes by the stage name of 'Lucifer' is trustworthy."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It probably means he had Thraix blood. The bronze age was a bit more cosmopolitan than your historians realize," Donna replies. After a moment's thought, she clarifies "Thracian. Who knows, maybe you're part Thracian, too."

    The plushy gets a little grin and a shake of her head. "You know Philippus sent a detachment of the palace guard to watch over Diana along with Epione and her assistant. If you try taking Diana's tiara, I'm not sure I could stop them from murdering you. It's not just decorative headwear, Terry. She's the princess of Themyscira. Think about it."

    She leans back, resting her hands on her knees, and breaths out slowly. "So, you took one mook down. That's more than most people could say, that they fought along side a group of superheroes and helped out by taking a supernatural monster out of the fight. Perhaps if you stopped telling yourself how useless you are without your powers, you would come to realize that you have lost less of yourself than you have thought. If you come to that realization, you might also find it easier to get along with Robin. I mean if you think about it, every time that you say that you are useless to the Titans without your powers, you are basically telling Robin, Nightwing and Hawkeye that they might as well quit. Hawk and Nightwing might be able to just shrug that off, but Robin not so much. You've never got to know him so you probably think he's just an angry brat and a hopeless case, rather than realizing how sensitive he is. And how, for all that he has a lifetime of training in combat, he's really very inexperienced at life."

    "Before you say it, I know that he's very dismissive of you, but then you haven't really given him the opportunity to know you, have you? You're older than him. And a lot more experienced when it comes to dealing with people. You don't have to take his lead. I was glad to see that Gar has seen past the mask enough to make friends with him. Slow progress, but it's progress."

    "Now. You wanted to tell me something about a stage magician who goes by the stage name of Lucifer, correct?" Donna shakes her head slightly. "Except of course this isn't a stage magician, is it? Or you wouldn't have been consulting Raven about him. Want to tell me the whole story?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Surprisingly, Terry seems to have no energy to argue about Robin. There's a certain lethargy to his movements that is sometimes overcome by some effort, but it's decidedly there. "C'mon, Donna. You can't compare me to Wing or Hawk or Robin. They've got years of training and actual mentors who shaped them twenty four seven for years. Without my powers all I know is how to parkour, and write. And the day is yet to come when I interview someone to death, despite what Lois says." He fidgets with his hands for a bit before saying, "I'm kind of very aware that if I don't get my powers back, I'm going to have to move out and go back to the way my life was before."

He looks down at his shoes. They're not particularly good ones. "I guess that's why I've felt so... desperate. But there's no helping that. If that's the way it ends up being, it'll have to be." He looks up again. "C'mon, Donna. You really think /the/ Lucifer is really going to give me advice- /me/, mister nobody- and not ask for a soul or something? No. This was just... some rather slick but somewhat dubious mage. He gave me a book with a ritual that might help bind my counterpart, and I copied it down and went to check with Raven on it, but she told me to discard it. I returned the book to him as soon as possible, but not before Harley had an unintentional accident with it- but nobody was hurt by it, so it's fine."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna sits listening quietly, then sighs and shakes her head. "I thought you had Harley Quinn as your actual mentor?" she asks. "Isn't she giving you combat training? Not to mention the training you've had with the Titans. You think all of that just vanished with the powers? And Clint isn't really Kate's mentor. He's just helped her out a bit and encouraged her. She started out with just two years of training, mainly on her own. You've been at this almost half that long already, with as much mentoring as you're prepared to accept from a whole team full of supers and all the facilities the Titans has to offer."

    "So honestly Terry? Can it." She leans back in her chair, hands gripping the arms. "This isn't reality, it's self-pity, and it's an insult to the rest of the Titans who have no powers as well as being an insult to yourself. If you stopped and thought about it, you'd know that. I repeat, you beat up a supernatural zombie monster without your powers. Not just a 'mook'. Not some street brawl. A magical creature summoned from the gods know where, defeated not by Vorpal but by Terry. The rest is just your inner mind - your subconscious - trying to undermine you."

    "I get it Terry, I really do. You want to imagine what it feels like when you're a kid training with people who have been training for thousands of years, and there isn't a single person in the entire /country/ who isn't better than you at everything? What it feels like growing up, when everyone's comparing you to your sister, and your sister is /Wonder Woman/? Either you let it eat you up, or you let it drive you. I suggest the second option. Having powers doesn't make a hero, Terry. /Trying/ is what makes a hero. If you go on trying, if you go on dedicating yourself to being a hero, nobody is going to kick you out of the tower."

    "On the other hand..." she shifts around in her seat , pulling herself a bit more upright, and looks at Terry with one raised eyebrow. "Rae might just kick you out of the tower if you keep acting with this little... sense. You're a smart guy, Terry. So I'm going to ask you to answer yourself. Someone who calls himself Lucifer offers to help you out with your soul. Does this really sound like a sensible plan to follow? I mean if it's on the level, it's a bad idea, and if it's not on the level, it's not going to work. So why would you do it?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry rases his hands slowly, "First rule of journalism is that you don't leave any stone unturned, and you don't judge a book by its cover. Again, we have someone in our team who cultivates the air Maleficent and calls herself /Raven/. And you made the very eloquent point that how she presents herself is not how she is- that she cares but doesn't want others to know. It behooved me to check this source out because... I have the time and I had a chaperone. And you don't know what you might uncover. You just don't... you know, /use/ the thing until and unless you know it's safe. Which is why I asked Raven to check it out."

Terry shrugs, "I was looking into potential answers. Investigation is one of the skills I do have. And it's tricky because Rae doesn't understand my... peculiarities. Of the Cheshire thing. Yet. I don't either. It's why I tried what I did, and failed. And now I think that I had the principle of the thing right, but I failed in the execution. But that's neither here nor there, now."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Well the first rule of being a Titan is to remember that you're a Titan. And right now, there are two Titans who have lost their powers and are faced with doppelgangers. Cassie doesn't have her powers any more either, remember?"

    Donna shifts her gaze to Diana, softening as she looks down at her sister, and she reaches out to take Diana's hand. "Cassie's doppelganger is a literal demi-god. Equipped with some really weird magical armor. She was strong enough to do this to Diana." She looks back up to Terry. "But she wasn't strong enough to get Cassie, even without her powers, was she? Because when she tried, bringing her little army with her, she found that our Cassie is a Titan."

    "Being a Titans /means/ something. You of all people know that. When was the first time you said 'Titans Together' Terry? When playing at superheroes with friends at school? Standing in front of the bathroom mirror wearing a cape? I'm betting it was one of those. Well, not so long ago you got to say it /for real/. I want you to think about that. I want you to remember what it felt like saying it. And I want you to remember what it means."

    She looks back to Diana, smiling gently, and leans forwards to kiss her sister's forehead before putting her hand down gently on the covers and turning back to Terry. "We can help, but only if you let us. Your doppelganger stole your powers. You know /how/ he stole your powers, so that means you know what it takes to steal them right back from him. And you have the entire strength of the Titans at your disposal. So how about putting that brain to some constructive work instead of the self-pity, and think about what /we/ can do to fix things, okay?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Okay," Terry says, nodding slowly. He glances at Diana, and sighs for a moment, remembering something. "I never wrote a cape, I wore a helmet. April wore the cape. She tried flying by jumping out off the top floor in the barn... landed on the hay bales and broke her arm." He smirks a little. "That summer sucked for her. She had to wear her arm in a cast and on a sling and she was livid until we pretended she was Napoleon."

He sits back on the chair and frowns. "I thought of Zatanna. The words didn't work the way I thought because I said them the right way around. Humpty Dumpty. In Wonderland magic, it's not just the words but the way they're facing that's important. I didn't say..." and he has some difficulty, but then he says "Ereh dam lla er'ew. Of course, me saying it now is useless. /He/ has to say it like that while looking into /my/ eyes."

"I already baited him once, so he knows I'll be baiting him again. We can track where he Holes with Nadia's scanner. But... he doesn't know Gar is alive. But he has /his/ Gar. If we know where he is... and Raven can scry on him to make sure the other Gar isn't with him... we could all Raven--port there and use /our/ Gar to set up a trap. And we've got to be fast to prevent him from Rabbit Holing."

He peers at Donna. "Spider-man told me that he webbed his eyes at one point and he had difficulty using his Rabbit Holes. Probably because he lacks the experience I have."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna cracks a faint smile. "That's more the Terry I thought I knew. Why, I do believe I see a bit more color entering your cheeks already. There are a number of things we can do to stop him from Rabbit Holing. Think about the creative uses you have been putting illusions to. We could turn that back on him. Have Vivian project a hologram over his Rabbit Holes to hide them, so that he thinks that they are failing. Or Raven can make him /scared/ of Rabbit Holes.

    She unhooks her lasso from her belt and holds out a loop of it towards Terry. "Or, lasso. I mean even if he does open a Rabbit Hole, he has to go through it and then close it. That would be very hard if I am dragging him out of any Rabbit Hole he tries to open. And I'm a lot faster than he is. He'll be more forewarned than Cassie's double was, because he has some of your memories. He'll have some idea of what we can do. But he can't /predict/ what we can do. He won't have the right sense of it. He doesn't know what it's like to be a team, not really. And frankly, because there are a lot of us in the Titans who can do a whole lot of different things, having some idea of our caoabilities isn't a big help really, because we simply have far too many options. And when he /does/ realize a trap is sprung, he's going to be scared, because he'll know what we can do."

    Donna leans forwards, taking Terry's wrist gently in her hand, and pulls his arm towards her. "And then we have to make him say the words, so that he hands the powers back to you. Funny thing though, that knowledge he has means he knows about my lasso." She starts to wrap the end of the lasso around Terry's forarm, not too tight. "He knows that it isn't Diana's lasso. He knows that I know when someone is lying. So he'll know that I can't force someone to tell the truth, but I don't need a lasso to know that someone is telling the truth." She looks up, the lasso held in both hands, looped gently around Terry's arm. "Terry, what are the words you say to transform into Vorpal?" she asks, smiling.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry answers automatically, without hesitation as the truth is compelled out of him by the powers of Hestia. "We're all mad here. But I need to be glancing into my eyes or else it won't work."

That last part wasn't compelled, but a helpful addendum.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna smiles wide, and with a quick flip of the wrist unhooks the lasso from Terry's arm. "Yes, he needs to be looking into your eyes. But I think that can be arranged. Because if he's caught, and he knows it, and he is scared -- and you are right up there in his face, not acting smart and not acting like you're about to trick him, but acting righteous and angry, I'll bet you he'll be looking right in your eyes as he thinks hard what he can say to worm his way out of it."

    She leans back, still smiling. "It's good odds he'd be answering the question before it even occurs to him how much trouble he's in if he does so, because there's every chance he'll be in too much of a panic to think about it. But you know what? If he does have the combination of quick thinking and nerves that it would take to shut his eyes when he says it, that's not going to help. And I'll tell you why it's not going to help."

    The smile grows wider. "Because /you're/ going to be the one holding Diana's lasso and questioning him, while I stand behind him with his head clamped tightly in my hands, hands he knows can crush steel. And I will /hold his eyelids open/."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry smiles slowly. It's a much more low-energy version of his usual reaction, but some lethargy isn't just mood, but also caused by soul-stretching. "Thank you... Donna. That means a lot."

And then a thought seems to strike him, and he looks at the Amazon, asking her "... Rae didn't make you watch The Clockwork Orange... did she?"