6170/I See Skies of Blue

I See Skies of Blue
Date of Scene:	10 May 2021
Location:	Themyscira City
Synopsis:	Raven and Donna go for a walk on Themyscira. They run into Magala who shares a few moments of mystical insight with Raven
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Rachel Roth

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    The Aegean sun is bright, and somehow here on Themyscira it seems brighter. It is not the natural habitat of Ravens, but it was inevitable that Troia would ensure that Raven would be exposed to it, whatever her thoughts to the contrary.

    Some physical dragging may have been necessary.

    It is, at least, thankfully, quiet. Although they have not left the confines of the city, Troia had lead Raven down paths less trod, along ancient streets hugging the side of the great mountain, past rows of tall cypress trees and quiet buildings, a less populated part of the city. Below the city is busier but that life and vibrance is seen and heard from afar. Here the narrow winding paths beneath the palace see relatively little activity, and minutes on end can go by without anyone passing the pair.

    Troia had insisted that they go for a /walk/. It's barely past lunchtime, which means Raven had probably barely got out of bed, yet Troia had been up for hours and was annoyingly full of life. The pace of Themyscira perhaps does not best suit the more nocturnal -- though there is a quite vibrant night-life here, the day does tend to start for most people with the rising of the sun.

    Eventually though, Troia shows mercy. The pair reach an outcropping surmounted by a small roadside chapel, a place for quiet contemplation. A small peristyle temple with a sunny courtyard inside with a gardener tending the plants therein, and shaded seating in the collonaded surround. A bit of time out of the sun.

    Troia leans back on the seat and sighs contentedly. "So. This is my home. So's the tower, now. Both... both feel like home to me. Feel like the places I belong. But this is where I come from. What I come from. I... I've wanted to show you for a very long time."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Some physical dragging was entirely necessary.

    Raven has been sequestered in the library since their arrival and subsequent meeting with Hippolyta. Sure, there have been moments where she leaves it- but these are rare, and as Raven has begun to prefer teleportation to walking as a mode of transportation, catching her in transit is essentially impossible. This is probably why she's been teleporting.

    As such, finding her was easy, but getting her attention required her to do more than invest an empty promise to be somewhere at any specific time. Getting her to /go/ anywhere requires the event to be a matter of /now/ and usually means forcibly pulling Raven out of her comfort zone, a place she is wont to remain in despite its lack of good influence on her health, social or otherwise.

    That is where we are now- Troia insisting, eventually physically, that Raven accompany her /outside/ of all places, in the /daytime/, something that seems more than anathema to the sorceress. She has on occasion sought research to unsummon the sun itself, but has as yet- evidenced by the continued presence of the life-giving star- been unsuccessful.

    Of course, Donna is thoughtful, and sequesters Raven to somewhere bereft of people, for the most part. Raven takes a moment to appreciate the quiet church, and its well-tended garden. She does not leave the outcropping, not until Donna does, at least, but there is a moment of contemplation. She asks a question to which she already knows the answer- but she feels that Donna wishes to tell her. She only needs probe so that Troia is encouraged to tell her.

    "Do you mean the chapel, or Themyscira?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia tilts her head sideways and looks at Raven with a wide, affectionate grin. "I assume you are being intentionally obtuse as revenge for me dragging you out here during daylight. It's good for you, you know. Sunlight. You don't have to be a Kryptonian or Tamaranean to benefit from it."

    She turns away to look out through the columns of the peristylon, watching the gardener at work in the distance, and leans in a touch, enjoying the physical nearness of her partner. "Both, in a way. As a child I was... I was a loner, really. Not through choice but because there were no other children. I wandered a lot, and found a freedom in quiet, out-of-the way parts of the city like this."

    "It's odd, in a way, that places like this should exist. That parts of the city such as this should become less used. When the citizens live for thousands of years they do not settle in the same place forever, though. The city is larger than is needed for its population. There are... fashions, I suppose, in the way the city has been used, in the areas people occupy."

    She falls silent a short while, and leans in a little more. "It's part of me. Themyscira. The quiet and the noise. The peacefulness, the vibrant life. The timelessness and the liveliness. The pace of life here. The integration of what human hands have made of this island, and the nature that is so intertwined with it. I can't... I can't explain Themyscira. Cassie and Helena are better at that than me. They get it like natives, but they see it from outside. It's too close to me. It explains who I am, who I was when we first met. It is a part of me that I have always shown but was never really able to explain, even when I finally was permitted to. I love that you are enjoying the library, but I love more that finally you can see Themyscira because you are seeing a part of /me/.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven stands there in her anti-sun body armor that one could call clothing, her hood remaining defensively up and about her features despit that the sun is currently behind the walls and roof of the small chapel. "I'll pass." This seems to be her last word on the idea of getting any time in the sun proper.

    There is, however, no combat against Donna's closeness: Something that definitely doesn't happen for anyone else. That barrier, the one of physical affection, is one beyond which only Troia lies willingly. The others have to work for it, and more often than not fail rather miserably.

    For a time, Raven just lets Donna speak. There's a level of warmth to it, as if Raven is not merely allowing Donna to continue, but actively /listening/ to her. Soaking in the knowledge of her past, and committing it all to her very, very good memory.

    "They move as their hearts take them. I have... Observed that the city itself is the home, not the dwelling or places within it. Some keep themselves in a role for an ostensible eternity. Others... Drift, from place to place, as they wish."

    Raven's head turns, and she locks eyes with Donna, her expression neutral as always- but lacking any sort of grim shadow to it. "I have always seen all of you Troia." Most certainly, that statement could be taken ominously, but regardless of that, she continues. "I... Appreciate, though, that you are showing me. I am happy that you're opening this up to me. I realize that we are both rather... Protective of ourselves. One of us, in fact, protective /from/ themself." Noting this, she looks away from Donna for a bit.

    "I wish I could take you to Azarath. The /real/ Azarath."

Donna Troy has posed:
    And yet that closeness is not enough; Troia's hand seeks out Raven's. "I... in my imagination, I see Azarath being not completely unlikely parts of Themyscira. What you have said of it makes me see in my mind's eye the halls and temples of my own home. Not so much the arena and training grounds, but the more... meditative side of Themyscira."

    There is another short silence, filled only with the sound of birds and insects, the gardener's working, the distant hum of the city and the sound of the sea beyond. The silence too is communication, of a sort. Azerath is a difficult subject, and Donna's words on the subject would be superfluous. That she stops talking a while is enough to communicate that she is thinking about it.

    Eventually though she breaks the silence, and it's with a soft laugh. "I don't think it's entirely true that you have always seen all of me. I think when we first met I was a puzzle to you, and a not entirely welcome one. Perhaps it is because you had known Dick a while and had come to actually respect him in a way you had not with many people. Perhaps... perhaps you considered him a useful buffer between yourself and the other up-and-coming heroes you dealt with, but it seemed to me at the time you were not best pleased with this strange hot-headed girl turning up an insisting on doing things her own, rather... enthusiastic... way."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    "You're not far off." Raven admits, predicting Donna's seeking hand with her own, and intertwining her fingers silently and without protest. She seems, indeed, happy to do so. "It was... Like every quiet place wrapped into one, populated by quiet people who valued every word as if it were gold. Communication was important, but it was the contemplation and the surety of it that would have, perhaps, led others to pause. You would not find someone like Beast Boy in Azarath, but you'd find people who /resembled/ what that kind of person /could/ be, if they toned down the impulsiveness and allowed themselves to enjoy the moment for what it was."

    When she speaks, it isn't /dis/respectful, but more... An observation, about her teammate. "You never hung on a word, and yet everything had meaning. Everyone spoke as if they had taken a moment- whether you were there for it or not- to think about what needed to be said, and /how./"

    There's a small sigh. Raven looks out of a window now, this portal into the other world, Donna's world. "All that remains are ghosts and bones. All of that peace, my legacy." Were Raven one to be drawn to tears, it would be here and now that it happened: But she is Raven, and allowing herself that moment of despair and sadness is something she cannot do. She can observe it, but never truly mantle those feelings. They are His door.

    "When you arrived, I saw through the exterior. The hotheadedness, the enthusiasm." A pause. "The heterosexuality." one jab, she'll allow herself. "He was useful for that, but the truth is that I saw someone who I felt was doing their best to wrap themselves up in what they /thought/ they should be, doing what they /thought/ they should be doing, and there was this... Paradox to it. You were not wrong, but you were not right. You were honest, but dishonest, to yourself and others. /That/ was the puzzle. Our job- even though we were barely toddlers to those of you comparative infants- was to temper that. How were any of us suppose to do that when there was no way to break the facade?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    There's a small secretive smirk, and Troia gives Raven's hand a gentle squeeze. "The heterosexuality. No... I think that was how you interpreted what you saw because you /didn't/ entirely see the truth. Certainly I was interested in boys. Fascinated, even. They were a novelty. Look around you though. Heterosexuality... no. The idea of gender being relevant to love was a foreign and concept to me. But I think you mistook a phase for a mask."

    " If I gave the sense of exclusivity, it was because I always felt I would have all the time in the world to explore my options, but here was a shiny new option. I met you only a few months after the first time I'd ever even seen a man. And..." she gives a slight shrug and another laugh. "Well, after the first few months when I shed some of the more obvious weirdness, they tended to be interested in me. Come to think of it, Diana recently told me that the first man I exchanged more than two sentences with asked her for my phone number. It was... exotic."

    "Doing what I /thought/ I should be doing, though..." Troia tilts her head to the side, silent a moment in thought, and shifts her position slightly. "Isn't that what makes us who we are, Rae? People like us are not content to simply do what is in front of us. We know we can be more. We know that if we strive to an ideal, we can achieve important things. But... I think I know what you mean. For you, to become what you are, that was a solution you found to the life you found yourself in. For me it was the result of the life I found myself in."

    She waves a hand, a wide, expansive gesture that takes in all around them. "This is a part of me, but I was not born to it. It was a gift. And I have been given so much. What I should be is a part of that gift. For you, to become the person you are, was a solution to a problem. A battle you had to fight. For me to be come the person I am was just a matter of embracing what was given to me. I could have rejected it. Stayed here, lived a happy and fulfilled life as a princess of Themyscira. But that would not have been honest to myself."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    "I never said It was dead, more that it was now open to what it was." she notes, taking a moment to get lost in the aftermath of her own ribbing. Despite this, she nods a couple of times. "I can't argue that. I felt like ti was important that it /be/ a phase without taking the time to understand whether it really was."

    After a moment, she looks deliberately away from Donna to another portion of the chapel. "Like a new toy. YOu were infatuated with the /idea/ of something you had heard was real, but had never seen. It was understandable. I think Diana knew.

    Offering another sigh, and giving up an agreeing nod. "That's what made it so difficult. How do we correct a test when the answers given weren't /really/ the wrong answers? Trying to impart knowledge and understandin of oneself is difficult. In many cases, it can even be impossible."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Oh, probably a significant part of it was Diana's fault, really. When she returned to Themyscira and I met her for the first time, someone who had actually lived in the world outside... well, you can imagine. She told me all these stories. Suddenly Themyscira went from feeling like the whole universe to feeling like a small corner of it. I wanted to see more of it. I wanted to see everything. Including men!" Troia bursts out laughing and gives Raven's hand another squeeze.

    A figure enters the collonaded section of the little temple from the far side, walking to where the pair are. "Troia. Raven. A good day," she calls out. It's not someone Raven has been introduced to yet, but she had been, briefly, present at court when the Titans had been introduced. Despite the brief meeting, she's not hard to recognize, because on this island she's quite unique. Despite the heat she wears a shawl wrapped around her head. A hood, of sorts. Although she stands out in a crowd for this, she would stand out more without it. The denizens of Themyscira are generally rather beautiful, but this woman is certainly not, by conventional definitions of beauty. Her jaw is heavy but short and square with very little chin, her forehead domed, her nose very large and her brows solid and beetling. Perhaps that's why she wears the shawl, or perhaps it serves a purpose closer to Raven's hood. To Raven's senses, there is something definitely odd about this woman.

    "Magala," Troia calls out to the woman, raising her voice above the soft, private conversational level that had sufficed when it was just the two lovers talking. "A very good day," she agrees. "You have been hard to find lately. I was at your cottage yesterday, but you were not. I have been wanting to introduce the two of you. Rae, this is Magala. I mentioned her to you. Themyscira's leading expert in magic."

    "No doubt, no doubt," Magala says, walking closer and coming to a stop a little distance from the couple. She studies Raven under those thick brows. "Troia has told me much about you, Raven." Her voice is odd, with a nasal, slightly hooting tone to it. "She asked if you might see my books. I might have a few that would be interesting for you to study, but most are written in a language none speak but I."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    "I am rather supportive of the idea of blaming Diana. That seems like the accurate course of action." she notes, slipping her free hand into her pocket. "But... All of that makes sense. You were suddenly shown that the world was broader. Until then, the 'world of man' was nothing but a myth, little more than a cautionary tale."

    Raven's attention turns to the woman who just entered, and there's an appraising gaze leveled her way. Raven's brow raises, and she looks back to Troia after a moment. "I see." Raven states, now immediately wary of... Well, any sort of magical expert being brought to her attention.

    This, frankly, never goes well. Raven is anathema to anyone who is magically attuned and has either a sense of self preservation or a sense of duty to keep anyone or anything safe.

    "I speak... A number of languages, and typically tend to study alone. I... Have my ways, but I would be thankful for the opportunity."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Troia will take you to my cottage tomorrow," Magala says with a nod. Troia raises an eyebrow and smirks slightly at the assumption, but shrugs it off. "You are welcome to try to read what you find there," Magala continues. "But do not expect to find any references to help you when it comes to my own books. The language I write in has been dead ten times as long as we have lived on Themyscira, and I invented my own way to write it, because there was none."

    The wariness seems... reasonable. There is something not quite human about Magala, and she gives very little away. Troia moves a little closer to Raven, perhaps an unconscious thing, picking up on Raven's wariness. "Magala has... collected... some of the works she finds of particular interest to her studies from the main library," Troia says with an impish expression. "Even if you can't read her own notes I'm sure there will be things of interest to you there, Rae."

    Magala studies the pair in silence for a moment, then nods her head again. "Do not take anything from my cottage," she says. "But you are free to spend time there studying. Troia thinks highly of you, Raven. For all the lack of wisdom that comes with her youth, she is not easily fooled, I think."

    "She says the same about mother," Troia says in a wry aside.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven is primarily silent through all of this, ready for the other woman to sprout a bouquet of magical Amazonian swords and attempt to murder her for the greater good. Honestly, it wouldn't be a change of pace, and the familiar is always more comfortable.

    "I'll do my best." she says, finally, allowing the other woman to set her rules, and the code of conduct, and offers no sign that she is going to disobey.

    "Thank you, Troia, for introducing us- and... For speaking of me, to someone whom you wished for me to meet."

    For once, Raven has no quips, or followups, or mean things to say. She's, honestly, a bit stumped. There are- guesses, of course, as to the nature and history of Magala. It's a name that Raven swears she's heard before... But it isn't her place to think about this. If she needs to know, she'll be told.

Donna Troy has posed:
    here had been a mention or two of the name before, indeed a promise to introduce Raven to Magala, back in Metropolis. It seemed logical to Troia - Raven's into magic, and Magala is the chief magician of the Amazons. She's probably not what Raven had been expecting.

    The odd physical appearance, the reference to a language ten times as old as Themyscira... it's not a great leap to assume that Magala is, somehow, /homo neanderthalensis/. Maybe it wouldn't be a bouquet of magical Amazonian swords, who knows what kind of magical tradition this practitioner stems from. Her dark eyes seem filled with secrets.

    Maybe, then, there is some degree of /sympathy/? While Troia would presumably have had the discretion not to tell too much to Magala, she might well have given some outline. Another outsider, who's own world is history, who shuns the society of others, and spends her time lost in books of magic. Practitioners tend to be wary of Raven for reasons that don't need someone to explain Raven to them -- mystical senses tend to find Raven's presence discomforting, at least at first. Magala's presence isn't entirely comforting either, though her soul is far from as darkly marked.

    Troia is suddenly very still. The sound of the city below is silence, and birds are frozen in the sky. There's a smell of strange herbs and hot metal, and the intense sense that something magical has taken place.

    It takes no time for Raven to sense what. The selective extension of a single moment, to create a magical pause, a kind of neutral zone in time. A few moments for practitioners to discuss something without the rest of the world being privy to it.

    "I mean no harm to you," Magala says quickly. "I do not believe you mean my people harm either. That does not mean I have no concerns. Troia is... complicated. Do you sense something about her she is not aware of? For her sake, do not look too closely."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven is used to this. Admittedly, this is normally the preface before an attack on her person, a well-intentioned magical warrior of some kind freshly learning of the threat to the world that she represents coming to do everyone a favor and save... Well, everything.

    While Raven does not pry into the thoughts and deeper emotions of random people- the noise is often more than she cares to deal with at all times, even though it takes /more/ effort to tune out than in- there are things she is always attuned to. Hostile intent is nigh impossible to hide from Raven.

    There is a deep sigh. Magala speaks to her, and Raven takes a moment to lock her gaze on Troia. "I don't mean anyone harm. Whether that matters is another thing entirely."

    Taking her gaze away, she looks back towards Magala. "I already know. I am well read. Unfortunately, I... Know more about Troia than she does. She doesn't care about what I'm supposed to do. She believes that I'm never going to do it."

    Her eyes hit the ground, then, and thought Troia will never feel it, her hand squeezes tighter.

    "That's why I am overlooking it, unless the time comes that I can't. Then... Then we'll see."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You and Troia are both fated," Magala replies. "But I do not forsee how that fate will unfold." She holds Raven's gaze for a little longer than is comfortable, then drops it, blinking a few times and looking away. She shifts her staff from one hand to the other.

    "You fight your fate. She is unaware of hers. Her ignorance will not last. There are those who hope her ignorance remains long enough for it to not matter, but others who prefer she knew. I don't know how she will react when she comes to know what has been kept from her, but she will be hurt by the knowledge."

    Magala nods her head as if to acknowledge her own thoughts and looks out for a few moments at the frozen form of the gardner. "She has faith in you, daughter of darkness. You seem two such different souls, but there are echoes, too. It may be that you are good for each other. I hope this is so." She turns back and raises her staff, then starts to lower it but pauses just before it hits the ground, her head tilted questioningly - a gesture ready to end the spell, unless Raven has something to add first.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven's gaze lingers on the floor for a time, but once again she has little- if not nothing- to say about all of this. Raven and Troia have had... An unspoken agreement that should Trigon's contingency, his plan, ever come to fruition, then before it can be enacted, Raven would need to be... Liberated.

    By any means.

    The most unspoken part of it is that by that time, the only means that will work is one, and they both know it. "Good? Maybe. I would be too vain than my liking to say anything like that about us together. But, we are ready for one another. In that, there's a sort of... Kinship that can't be replicated. It makes what we have special in a way that nobody else has. It figures that what makes my love unique is that some of it comes from a murder-suicide pact."

    A sigh.

    "Do it."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Magala smiles just a little bit. "She believes that you're never going to do it," Magala says. "Your own words."

    The staff comes down, rapping gently on the ground.

    "Well it's not that I'm expecting the two of you to become close friends," Troia says with a gentle laugh. "But you share an interest, you both hate crowds, and you both think that everyone around them talks far more than is necessarily. Perhaps that is enough in common for you two to at least tolerate each other's presence." Time is moving again -- not that it ever stopped, except for the perceptions of Raven and Magala.

    "We shall see," Magala says. "Tomorrow, then. I shall be expecting you, whenever you arrive." She turns and walks back to the road, without any more of a farewell than that. Donna watches her walk away before turning back to Raven with a smile and no awareness of the tension.

    "When I was very young I was scared of Magala. When I grew older I guess... she fascinated me a little. I would visit her cottage to watch what she was doing, even though I did not understand it. She tolerated me, I suppose. Treated me more like an adult than the rest of the Amazons did, at least. Whenever I sensed the other Amazons weren't talking about something in front of me, or if I thought what they were saying didn't make sense, I would ask Magala about it. Usually she would explain it to me."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven has, at this point, heard enough of the conversation. She waits for time to resume, to uncoil like a compressed spring around them, as Donna animates once more.

    In the face of the moment she just shared with Magala, what Troia is saying sounds sort of trite. Pointless. Raven nods along in a friendly way, but the purpose of being here has been fulfilled, whether Donna knows it or not.

    "Hm." she notes, looking around a moment. "We will give it a try." Raven notes, acquiescing without combat to Troia's points as she is often willing to do- which under normal circumstance would seem suspicious, but Troia is doing that irksome Being Right thing she does every now and again.

    "I'm not sure if you've noticed yet, but I'm going to point out a few things." she begins, "First, Magala has gone home. Second, the Gardener has done the same. Third, in the morning I will be hard to find, and Fourth, we haven't a lot of time on Themyscira regardless." A pause. "So. With all of those details, there is a conclusion that we may reach, together."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia gives Raven a shoulder-bump -- not one of the slightly too firm physical interactions she is wont to do when she thinks Raven needs a minor course-correction, just a playful bit of affection.

     "First, I'd noticed Magala had left or I wouldn't have started recounting my memories of her to you," she counters. "Second, the gardener can do what she likes. Third, generally in the mornings I can find you in bed. While I despair of your relationship with the day-night cycle..." Troia pauses long enough to give Raven a teasing grin. "...I don't hate too much knowing when I can find you in bed."

    Troia walks back towards the roadway a few steps, then turns to nod a 'come on then' nod to Raven. "As for fourth, I do not intend this to be our only visit to Themyscira. This was only intended to be the introductory tour. I told you -- Themyscira is a part of me. If you're going to stick with me, then you're probably going to be stuck with more time visiting here in future. "

    "Nevertheless I conclude that you feel I have taken too much of your precious reading-time by dragging you out for a walk. Come on then, I promise to lead you back to the books by a route that is only slightly scenic."