6596/Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (Trap Remix)

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (Trap Remix)
Date of Scene:	17 June 2021
Location:	Red Rose Cafe
Synopsis:	Toni's birthday party is a reasonable success. Gift bags are given out. Linguistics are raised. A warm vibe is established, and much delicious food is had. NEXT ISSUE - A TITAN *DIES*
Cast of Characters:	Toni Monetti, Caitlin Fairchild, Kara Danvers, Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Cassie Sandsmark, Terry O'Neil

---

Toni Monetti has posed:
"So thank you all for comin' to my birthday party," says TONI MONETTI, currently in a really flattering little black dress, with a fresh and closer haircut that's been slicked down to a near bob and extra-neon-garish makeup to go along with her usual face job to make her look a little less... pallid and silvery.

As she holds black gloved hands clasped together, she says, "So as you can see I got the entire place for a private party and all we gotta do is not get in the way if they need to make a delivery order. You see those menus with MONETTI on the front? No prices in them. Get whatever you want. You can eat literally everything in the place. Oh, and get the goodie bag while you're at it!"

The menu is... well, it's an Italian restaraunt. In addition to pizza there is a wide range of upscale dishes representing fine Tuscan and Northern Italian specialties. There are also chicken wings AND chicken strips... in case that's more your speed.

The goodie bags are small things with Memphis-Googie patterns suitably garish for the deepest aesthetic depths of the 1990s. Within are small artful spreads of gift cards, a USB drive containing a chintzy but heartfelt curated video monologue of identity-friendly Teen Titans Moments set to a range of vaguely inappropriate songs, including - yes - a trap-house remix of a Billy Joel song, and a little black-and-white beanbag animal. It's probably a dog? You can kind of see the palette similarities with Toni.

"Also," Toni says, pointing towards the corner, "Karaoke if you got the stones. I'mma get at it later. Now boom! Have fun!"

Toni remains lingering in front of the door, reaching over to grab a bottle of mineral water, which she holds as if she's drinking out of a liquor bottle. (It is, in fact, mineral water. For now.)

Everyone arriving is asked a salient question: "How you doing?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin shows up with a gauche punctuality. 'Fashionably Late' isn't a thing. She beams a smile at Toni's welcome and offers her a hug, then holds out a slender gift wrapped in colorful print and tied with a pretty, real ribbon.

"Happy Birthday, Toni," she bids the other Titan. Caitlin's attire is fairly simple; jeans with a modest fit and a black babydoll tee that says 'COME TO THE DORK SIDE' in bold print. Her hair's been ironed flat and is held back from her face with a simple dark hairband. "I'll try to wrangle Wally if he gets here; you've got to be careful with the words 'open buffet' when he's around," she observes with a whimsical amusement.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara is wearing a blue dress, her hair professionally braided, and a pair of purple glasses that she recently bought. She has also gone with purple lipstick to match her glasses. She arrives as Toni is making her speech and gets excited at the mention of goodie-bags, "Yesss.."

Kara looks through it as she finds a table. The monologue will probably make her cry later. She just knows it. Then after she is seated, the menu is glossed over until.. pizza, "I wonder if they'll make a double pepperoni..? Please say yes.."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick shows up just a smidge late, but in time for Toni's opening. He smiles and greets her with, "Happy Birthday, Toni. It's nice to be getting together for something that doesn't involve an impending disaster." He glances over at Kara with a little grin, "Other than what Kara might do to the place's pepperoni reserves." He hands her a neatly wrapped package, then heads in to join the others.

He's dressed, well.. as Nightwing, because secret ID. Sometimes more than a little annoying when you just want to hang with friends, but what can you do?

"Kara, Caitlin, hi. Please tell me you aren't going to make me sing karaoke? I'm good at a lot, but singing isn't included in that."

Toni Monetti has posed:
"Caaaait," says Toni to Well You can Guess Who, giving her a brief, leg dangling hug and accepting it. "It's totally cool! Wait, is he gonna like want to literally eat an entire prime rib?"

Kara gets another big beaming embrace. "They absolutely will BUT I'm gonna be a hipster here and say, you want a meat pizza? Try... ****, what's it called," Toni says. "It's like pepperoni but it's also salame and proscuittio and everything, so you get that /authentic/ meat lovers going on. BUT," Toni concludes, "I'm just SUGGESTING."

She raises her voice. "Gio! Can you do double pepperoni?"

"Yes, Antonia," shouts an exasperated-sounding guy back. Dishes clatter.

"See that's like when they put the gun on the mantlepiece in like the first part of the play, /dude/, now you're gonna HAVE to. Thank you for coming by," Toni says to Nightwing, grinning hard enough to actually make small, vaguely reflective dimples on the corners of her face.

Toni moves over towards a chair festooned with black, white and pink streamers with a couple of tasteful balloons which is clearly The Birthday Girl's Seat, taking a moment to inspect Caitlin's gift. "Hah! I'm gonna wear this to video games or something. Hold me to it," she tells Cait.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin laughs gaily at Toni's guess. "Close," she admits. "I think we've all been pirating the same Playstation account for like, ten years now."

One of the seats looks sturdy enough to sit; Caitlin settles carefully into it and beams at Kara and Richard. "Hey, imagine running into you guys here," she says with mock surprise.

There's soda on the table; Cait pours herself a tall glass of it and looks over the menu. "Ooh, barbecue? I could do some barbecue," she murmurs to herself.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara snort laughs at Nightwing, Hey you know I can't sing.. family curse!" She doesn't even have to say it.. Clark isn't a pop star either. When Gio agrees to make her a double pepperoni, Kara's excitement is impossible to contain, "I am already in love with this place. Gourmet double pepperoni.."

When Caitlin arrives and decides on barbecue, she blinks, "Do they really have barbecue here?" She glances back at the menu. Yep. "Italian barbecue.. huh.. but yeah I wouldn't miss Toni's birthday!" She holds up her goodie-bag, "Did you look inside yet? Gift cards!!"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna has a tendency to turn up to things late and dressed inappropriately. It's almost a joke amongst the Titans. She'll turn up to formal occasions in jeans and leather jacket, or to casual events dressed in armor. It's not intentional, it's just one of those things that seems to happen accidentally with unreasonable frequency.

    It's not universal though. Today she's almost on time and all dressed up, wearing a rather slinky knee-length red dress, and even has heels on. For once she has actually prepared.

    She even has a gift! She hands it to Toni with a broad smile, giving her a warm hug to go with it. "Happy Birthday Toni," she tells the new Titan before taking a seat next to Caitlin and giving Cait's shoulder a bump.

    When Toni opens the present she'll find inside a necklace with an intricately blown glass capsule pendant. The capsule is wrapped in a fine metalwork cage, and inside the glass is a silvery liquid that looks like mercury, but reacts to small changes in body heat by changing shape so that it seems to be in constant motion, flowing around the intricate glasswork of the capsule, in an echo of Toni's powers. It's undoubtedly something she had made on Themyscira.

    "Really, Cait?" Donna says with a faint smirk. "You go to an Italian restaurant and pick the barbecue? Look, they have lampredotto, you don't get that often in American Italian restaurants. It's a rare speciality, you should try that."

    Donna is not going to be taking her own advice in this case.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing grins at Kara's excitement, "I didn't, no." He takes a moment to peek into the bag, "And a little stuffed thing as well." He plugs the USB into a port on one of his vambraces and chuckles as it starts playing on the HUD in his mask for a moment before he stops it, "Can watch the rest of that later, I think. For now, let's see what we've got here."

Grabbing a menu, he starts out with ravioli, then for a main dish orders scampi. Sure, he loves pizza, but they have that tons at the Tower, he's taking advantage of being in a restaurant.

"Cait, congrats on the Amazon thing, sorry I couldn't be there with the team. We're all very proud of you. Was hoping to catch you soon. And you know very well that Playstation account is legit, we slipped it into the batarang budget."

Toni Monetti has posed:
"Not like rib ribs, they have a prime rib," Toni says. "It's what /I'm/ having later, I'm gonna eat so much beef I pass out and die." That's a lot of beef. After examining the package with a quiet 'whoa!' Toni finishes setting it down.

She then sweeps towards Donna with a beam, moving towards a brief embrace and then opening upwards the package and saying, after a moment, "Holy... /crap/." Toni struggles for a moment with the isntinct to put it on vs. the instinct to not up the glamour game too hard at what is, ultimately, a party for young adults. She glances up at Nightwing.

A guy with short blond hair and a lot of muscles walks out of the back with an order pad. He stops dead while looking directly at Nightwing. Both his hands come up. "I don't want any trouble," he says to him. "New management, I /swear/ it's new management."

"BRANDO STOP EMBARRASSING ME IN FRONT OF MY FRIENDS," Toni shouts at the waiter.

"You're friends with him?" Brando says in astonishment.

"Yes."

"Is this a mutant thing?" Brando asks, with authentic curiosity. Toni's lips press together hard enough to threaten becoming a laser level.

"Look, I'm sorry, never mind," Brando concludes. "We just get a talk in case, Mr. Nightwing, please give my regards to, ah, to you know?" And after that he takes the order with impeccable politeness and moves back into the kitchen. Toni moves to plop down afterwards.

"What was it like, Cait?" Toni asks, eyes widening. "I wasn't sure I got exactly what happened and I'm sorry I couldn't make it, the Amazon stuff is all completely /amazing/ though."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara suddenly realizes that she hasn't given Toni -her- gift yet, "I.. seriously almost forgot to give you your gift Toni!" She digs into her purse and pulls out a very tightly wrapped, small box. Inside of it will be a $300 gift card to Big Belly Burger. Kara laughs nervously, how was she supposed to know that Toni was going to eat a ton of beef tonight? "Here!" She hands the present to Toni.

She glances at Nightwing's ravioli, "So.. that's what the non-canned stuff looks like. Might just try some.." Donna gets a wave as she enters, "Donna! Come sit with us!"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Cait's mouth forms an 'ohhh'. "I thought it was, like. Shortribs. Prime rib. I can do some prime rib." She looks up at Donna with a vacant smile, and the expression on her face turns into a silent 'wow' at the outfit. She stares at Donna, then looks down at herself, then sighs heavily and drops the menu.

"I am never going to get the hang of party dress codes," she says ruefully. Donna looks like a literal goddess. Cait's shirt is nerd apparel.

The menu's put aside and she beams a fond smile at Nightwing across the table. "I promise I will never forgive you for not being there." There's a teasing lilt to her voice; an in-joke of some kind between them. She includes Toni in her nod, acknowledging their parallel questions. "Themyscira's... it's amazing. It's transforming. You don't come back the same person you left as. I never thought anywhere but the Tower would be home for me, but..." she smiles with a rueful, pleased expression, and flexes the golden bracelets on her wrists. "The place grows on you. It's the prettiest country in the world."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing smirks a little at the waiter's reaction, devolving into full laughter as Toni yells at the poor man. He nods at Brando's request, then looks over at Toni, "Something you're not telling us about your choice of venue?"

When the ravioli arrives, he digs in, nodding to Kara, "Yeah, it's a lot nicer." He reaches over to steal one of her unused forks and gathers up a ravioli and some sauce, offering it to her, "Here, try one."

Once she takes it, he waves to Donna, "Good, you made it." before looking back to Cait with a matching smile and a shrug, "Well, you know how it is. You know I was there in spirit at least." He listens to her talk about Themyscira, "Sounds really amazing, yeah. The procedure that would get me there is a bit too extensive for my tastes, however."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You were there on Themyscira Toni!" Donna points out with a grin. "We just wanted to do a little extra celebration of Caitlin's achievement here on American soil. It seemed particularly suitable for the opening of the Themysciran Arts Center to have a celebration of the first entirely American Amazon."

    Donna tilts her head to the side. "I mean Cassie is... well, very American. But she's an Amazon because of... you know. Non-American things. In Cait's case, we view her as someone who learned our ways from us, but who always had the potential for being an Amazon because of who she is and how she is. So... American Amazon. We even brought the queen over to America to formally present Cait with her bracers. Sorry you missed it, but... well as I said, you were there for the celebration on Themyscira."

    Donna flashes a brief, momentary look of apology to Dick, who of course hadn't been there on Themyscira for that, though he had heard after the fact that it had happened. It should be obvious that for all the talk of improving relations between America and Themyscira, at least for Donna and Caitlin part of the reason for that second ceremony on American soil was so the male Titans who hadn't been there for that first celebration could have the opportunity to take part. No need to discuss the fact that Nightwing wasn't there, because Cait and Donna are among the small number of Titans who know that he actually was.

    Donna returns Kara's greeting with a quick one-armed hug and tells the Kryptonian "Ravioli from a tin? Sacrelige. Its not the same at all, as you're about to find out."

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni accepts the gift box with gratitude from Kara and peeks within. Then she closes it. "I will treasure this, Kara. /Treasure it/." It gets set aside with the several other little things, as she rests her chin on her elbow and listens to Caitlin. Then she looks at the bracelets. "So is that like a... religious thing? Like with Sikhs and the hair and the knife?"

"You got me, it's my cocaine shop," Toni tells Nightwing. She then grins because it is 100% a joke. But she DOES explain: "I think the last owners got busted for being like, money laundering? My dad's staff guy recommended it, he said he knows the chef from high school. That's Gio I was shouting at." (Later bat-computer references will validate this as far as it goes.) "But like the /business/ just had to change hands, so I think Brando like, was worried? Because..."

Toni sort of gestures in the air. "... Gotham?"

"Well yeah of course I remember the ISLAND I just didn't know if it was like a conversion thing," Toni tells Donna, beaming. "That's amazing though. Hey, can you do the bullets thing now, Caitlin?"

There is a brief interlude as Brando emerges to deliver plates of things. Toni apparently had pre-ordered some calamari, just to lay a squidly base for prime rib in a minute or ten. The quality of the cooking is generally good, although the ravioli is, in fact, a stand-out between fine dough and immaculately-blended cheese within. Is that... truffle oil?

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I could do it with... a .45. If I saw it coming," Caitlin hedges. "I'm not as fast as Donna and Diana, though." A grin splits her face. "But I've tanked RPG hits in the past, so blocking bullets isn't the biggest deal in the world for me."

"It's... kind of religious," Caitlin hedges. She looks sidelong at Donna, then gives Toni an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I don't know if it's something I can really talk about. It's not religious but it's..." she purses her lips. "Sacred, I guess."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara's eyes light up when tastes the ravioli, "Oh my god.. you're both right! No more canned chef! Does this place deliver?" And that's when her pizza arrives. It's a decent size and really hot. Kara couldn't care less though and immediately grabs a piece of the pizza, which is loaded with pepperoni. Her expression is much like it was with the ravioli, "Mmmm... -please- say they deliver.." They probably don't but it's worth a shot.

She gives Toni a bright smile when she opens her gift, "I figured! Can't go wrong with food.." Kara also offers Caitlin a smile, "I'm so happy for you anyway!"

Dick Grayson has posed:
"You'd think with Cait around you'd know better than to eat canned stuff, there's always real food in the Tower. And it's not like you can't get to a place to pick something up far faster than any delivery driver could ever arrive. Fly, Supergirl, fly to decent food." He grins and winks at her, "You'd be amazed at how good some of the places around here are."

He looks to Cait and nods, "Yeah, you really have very little need to deflect bullets, so I think you're good there."

At Toni's comments about the place, he chuckles, "Yeah, well, that doesn't surprise me much. Far too many businesses in Gotham have that kind of background, although we are making some headway at cleaning things up. Long as he's just waitering now, Brando is fine. Not his fault the place used to do illicit business."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It's more historical than religious really," Donna clarifies a little. "The bracers are a cultural symbol. Though they are also somewhat sacred. Each Amazon has bracers that are made from a very rare alloy of steel that contains a tiny portion of the shield Aegis, the unbreakable shield crafted in Hephaestos' forge for Athena herself."

    "As for the bullets thing..." Donna turns a grin on Caitlin. "She's getting pretty good with arrows, but it may be a while before we try her out on a high-powered rifle, or a machine gun. Caitlin is fast, but the reaction times required for that are... well, as Cait says, it's pretty challenging."

    Donna apparently is following Toni's lead for the calamari, because who can resist calamari? Not someone who was raised on an island in the Aegean, for sure. She's also got something that looks rather similar to ravioli, but not quite. A Tuscan speciality, Tortelli di patate di Mugellani, a dish of tortelli stuffed with a potato, cheese and tomato filling, and covered in a rich, gamey ragu. "Try this one as well," she says to Kara with a grin, offering her a taste. Apparently today is the day that Kara gets introduced to the wonders of real, hand made, filled pasta dishes. None of that canned stuff here!

    "There's always a need to deflect bullets," Donna says to Dick with a smirk. "If I'd earned my bracers before I joined the team you'd have seen that, but now you're spending more time with the team again, you'll see. Plenty enough times I covered you with my shield while you did something sneaky in the past though, Nightwing. Bracers are faster and more flexible though, and it's really useful to be able to deflect a bullet in a controlled fashion. People really hate shooting at someone and then suddenly finding they have to avoid their own rounds."

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni looks to Kara. "They do, HOWEVER, have you considered: Frozen ravioli. You do lose something but it's way better than that canned, uh, stuff. I'm sure they can get you some, just lmk and I will set it up." Finger-guns.

Toni nibbles at the calamari. She is probably saving room for the rib. She glances at Caitlin, then towards Donna, as she says, "Get out. Like you can learn to for real shoot it back? Like obviously, I had heard, and I know if you're like super hyper fast and shit, obviously, but I thought that was like... like if someone's shooting the entire clip at you yeah some of them are gonna go back the way they came."

Back to Nightwing. "Well yeah I figure you can't help it if it turns out, oh, three levels up, oops! /Mob/. But that's boring, I guess. Isn't this a trip though? Like, right over here," Toni says, jerking her thumb a little towards Caitlin, "we're like right across from a piece of stuff that was made by an actual for-real god for another actual for-real god."

"My dad got kind of mad when I told him about that part but not like, active mad, just like..."

Toni's eyes narrow and her lips pull back in a deep-set frown. She speaks in a deeper version of her own voice. "You need to be careful with this kind of stuff."

Back to Normal Toni. "You know? He said that shit when I taught myself Arabic from the satellite channels in Saudi. /Exact/ same tone of voice."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Cait's heaping piles of... everything, onto her plate. In great quantities. Presumably before Wally shows up. In fairness though, she only takes portions from the servings in front of her and spends equal time making sure that everyone else can try it as well. She winces at Toni's casual profanity but otherwise doesn't comment on it.

"I am definitely not making enough Italian food," Caitlin mumbles around a mouthful of bolognase. She sits upright and shifts so her posture's correct (though far from being stiff-backed).

"The... 'gods' is kind of a tricky term," Caitlin hedges. A practicing Catholic like her obviously had to find a path forward with it. "You could also call them the Theoi. They're very real, though. Like in an actual, 'walks upon the earth' sense."

Carefully, Caitlin omits any more details on that topic. "How'd you find this place anyway, Toni?" Caitlin inquires of the birthday girl. "It's a swell restaurant. I had no idea about it being here. Is it one of those society secrets?" Eyes sweep back and forth, taking in the ambiance and decor.

Kara Danvers has posed:
The pasta that Donna offers gets yet another exclaimed, "Mmmm!" Then it's back to her pizza, "I mean.. it's not like I've never had Olive Garden before. This place is just.. better than anywhere else I've been before." When it's confirmed that the restaurant delivers, Kara's eyes light up yet again, "Seriously? Pizza night just got better.."

When Nightwing talks about the food in the tower, she shrugs, "Well on days I have classes, I still gotta eat, and campus food is expensive. But I can try the frozen raviolli idea." It's like she can't cook or anything!

"This pizza is just.. wow.."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Where there is pizza and Titans to be found, there is a fairly high possibility that Nadia will soon follow. A birthday only adds a layer of curiosity to the whole thing, those are still fairly new to her having just started experiencing them in the last year, but always seem to involve a good time!

"Sorry I'm late!" The breathless Waspette bursts into the restaurent. "There was a thing and it nearly tried to eat another thing, but I stopped it!" She seems rather pleased with this fact despite the absolute lack of any sort of specificity or details. "Happy Birthday Toni!"

Greeting taken care of, she makes a beeline for the food, following the scent of the pizza to its source and stacking a plate with a few slices.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing shrugs, "Well, I mean, then you also have Thor, for instance, dunno if he's really a god or just a powerful being our ancestors saw as a god. Who really knows exactly what's what? Not a deep discussion to get into at a birthday party."

He shakes his head at Kara, "You do realize you can take some of Cait's food, put it in a container, and heat it up at school, right? There are ways to avoid the dreaded can."

"As for bullet deflecting, I'll just stand behind Cait and let the bullets hit her and drop to the ground. She's fairly good at that kind of thing, after all." He finishes the ravioli and waits for the next dish to arrive. "Well Toni, he's a politician. Appearance is everything, which is, no offense, why I don't trust politicians."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna flashes Caitlin a small, private grin. Technically /Theoi/ just means 'gods' anyway, but it's an accomodation that Donna had tried to help Caitlin to come to. Shortly after Caitlin had first arrived on Themyscira, Donna had tried to politely broach the subject of how Caitlin was going to have to come to terms with the fact that the Greek gods did, indeed, 'walk upon the Earth'. It can't be easy on someone raised a strict Catholic, but given that Caitlin has now actually met several of them, it's kind of necessary.

    "I'm not as good at it as Diana," Donna tells Toni. "If I'm prepared, yeah I can pretty much chose where a bullet I'm deflecting is going to go next. I can't do it with rapid fire though, in that case I'm pretty much just... making sure where it doesn't go rather than where it does go. And... right across form four pieces of stuff made by an actual for-real god. Six when Cassie shows up. All Amazon bracers are made that way."

    Donna gives Kara a broad grin. "I've been giving Supergirl a little training in the bullets and bracers trick. She's got the speed for it, but speed is kind of the necessary requirement rather than the sufficient requirement. A large part of it is anticipation and angles. Give her a little time and she'll be sending bullets back where they came from when she needs to, as well. "

    Donna greets Nadia's arrival with a smile and a wave, but Nadia's explanation of a Thing trying to eat another Thing doesn't seem to require any comment. That's just a normal day for a Titan, everyone understands. Nadia has arrived to the party undecorated with bits of Thing, and that's a win.

    Donna's ears perk when Toni mentions learning Arabic though. "/A useful skill/," she says to Toni in that tongue. "/We can share secrets. Careful though, Nightwing speaks it too. He is not to be trusted./" Donna gives Dick a wink.

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni seems to tolerate theological ambiguity well enough. But there's another question. "Oh, like I said, I asked my dad's staff guy. I'm not gonna brag but he's a Senator, and like a lot of why I have not been around is that we had to go to Morocco? It was like a delegation and my mom was anxious because," her voice lowers, "she did not enjoy the time in Saudi Arabia," normal voice, "so like, I got elected to come be all smiley and everything."

"So my dad's pretty happy with me lately," Toni says, rocking her head to the side. "He doesn't really... KNOW... things, but he says hi and he hopes you guys all have a good time. ESPECIALLY NADIA HEY GIRL GET OVER HERE!"

Toni puts one of the menus in front of Nadia, although she has some room to get freelance slices. "Anything you want," Toni tells her. "You want thirty chicken parms? We can do that. I mean, we might not be able to but it's gonna be 'oops we didn't make thirty chicken parms' not, like, 'oh no I am out of money.'"

At this point, Brando the waiter comes out with an actual covered tray. This appears to be the Birthday Girl's meal of honor, and is presented with Toni clasping her hands before her.

SAID MEAL:

* Big-ass slab of Italian-style prime rib, which mostly means lots of oregano and black pepper as well as some balsamic in the jus
* Roast red potatoes with garlic
* Oven-roasted broccolini

"I don't blame you," Toni answers Nightwing. "I don't really either. See, though, it's funny you mention our ancestors, because I am PRETTY SURE when I was on Themyscria I like had ancestral memory of some legionary dude wake up and guide my hand in the spear, since I mean I am definitely Italian and shit." At this point she slices off a big slab of beef and puts it in her mouth. Now she cannot talk for some time. Truly, a gag the Amazons could envy! If a temporary one...

Her eyebrows waggle at Donna. As she swallows it, she answers Donna, also in Arabic. "/Oh, wonderful! You know it too. By Allah they are gonna think we all went radical or something. So that is the other reason my dad asked me to, hold on./" A pause. "/To accompany him on the diplomatic journey, right? But there was no big intrigue. Nobody believes me when I tell them this. Except!/" She points with her knife. "Caitlin!" She reverts to English. "You believe me. You believe /in/ me."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin shares a grin with Donna between bites. It's not intended to be exclusionary, but it's just one of those things difficult to share with others.

Dick's sidebar about being a bullet soak prompts Caitlin to stick her tongue out at him minutely. "Me gud tanky fiter," she concurs. "I mean, now, me and Kara," she amends, and wiggles her fork at Supergirl. "Which I gotta say is kinda nice, Victor is a little slow for pulling bullet shield duty and bullets do /hurt/ when they hit."

Nadia blows through, babbling, and Caitlin sits upright with wide eyes while trying to track the Unstoppable Waspette's path. "Huhwhuh? Who got eaten?" she demands, calling over at Nadia. Then Toni's saying her name and Caitlin blinks rapidly, focusing on the switch to English. "Huh? What? I don't speak Arabic," she apologizes. "Did I miss something?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara laughs awkwardly when it's suggested that she take some of Caitlin's food for lunch, "Yeah if there's any left! I love Caitlin's food, in fact I think we all love it too much sometimes. I don't eat canned food every day, but there are days when I oversleep, or don't sleep. You know how it is.." She sighs, "Fine no more canned food."

Kara adds between pizza mouthfuls, "I wish I had more time to cook. Too bad cooking is the one thing I -can't- rush.." When Nadia arrives she gets an excited wave from Kara!

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia waves and waves, so much waving. She grins at Donna before giving Toni a hug, because there is no way the birthday girl is escaping without a hug, it's just how these things work. "Oooh!" She says plucking up the menus and perusing its contents, "There's so many things I haven't tried before." A pause. "What's a chicken parm?" Bunker Girl has apparently never had one before. But then she's only been out a year and even for someone like Janet there's only so much she's been able to be exposed to in that time.

She peers a bit between Toni and Donna when they start speaking Arabic, "I sense secret code language! Or at least one I wasn't trained in."

She grins at Caitlin, "So I was at my lab outside working on a thing, an engine thing," She looks around a bit shifty eyed, "For going deeper into Space. When a microverse creature showed up, it must have been dwelling on a nearby molecule, I think it was attracted by the reactions of the Pym Drive. It was like this big!" She holds her hands as far apart as she can, despite size being really relative in the microverse. "And was like a tardigrade crossed with an elephant but its body was covered in weird prehensile fur and its trunk had a weird suction vortex mouth. It was amazing."

Kara gets a bright smile too, and Dick a wave as well, making sure to say hello to everyone as her attention is pulled this way and that.

Dick Grayson has posed:
"Yeah, super speed doesn't make food cook faster, though you can cook more things at once, I imagine. Just need a big stove like we have back at the Tower. But good, that canned stuff is no good for you anyway. Not that you have to worry too much about that, I suppose. Can Kryptonians even get fat? You guys seems to just stay in shape all the time, no matter what you're up to.

He grins at Cait when he gets about the reaction he expected, "Yeah, I'm no sexist, I'll happily take cover behind the women when the gunfire heads our way. You guys are much tougher than I am, and I know it. But I'm sure you'll get the hang of the deflecting thing, you have the ability, just need the practice. I've seen you move pretty darn fast, after all."

He returns Nadia's wave, listening to her story as she describes the critter she was dealing with.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I spent a little time in Syria before I made it over to America last year," Donna says to Toni. "Seemed like a good idea to learn the language. I have however learned not to get into a language contest with Nightwing or Raven. The pair of them can be terrible show-offs. On the other hand..." Donna looks over to Kara with a grin. "/ehwor khuhp vahdhah kyrptaniuo voi/,"* she adds, smirking slightly. "Nightwing and Raven can't speak that. Though Cait knows a little".

    "You know Giorgio's doesn't just do pizza," Donna points out to Kara. Giorgio's has become the Titans' go-to pizza delivery place since Terry had introduced it to the team, and they now had an account with the St.Martin's restaurant. "They'll deliver pasta too. For those days when Cait is too busy to cook up one of her masterpieces."

     A quick glance Dick's way. "And please, no more experiments with increasing the cooking speed of dishes with heat ray vision, remember how that went last time."

    *Translation: 'I also speak Kryptonian fairly well.'

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni grins a little. "Nah, nah, they were just saying we could use it like a code cuz the three of us know it and like, IDK, bad guys? Do not. Anyway it was just 'hey cool you guys all speak Arabic,' and also how my /dad/ wanted me to like listen in case any of the dudes in Morocco were like, plotting things."

She explains to Nadia. "OK, it's like a chicken fillet, right? They bread it, they fry it in a pan, they put red sauce on it, they put mozzarella on THAT, they put it in a broiler so the cheese gets nice and crispy, then they put it on linguine with maybe a little more red sauce. OR you can get it in a sandwich."

Toni pauses.

"That sounds horrible," she says, even as she discreetly gets out her phone and, also discreetly, searches for tardigrade. "It was like, friendly? Or not."

"We should do a language board," Toni says. "I know that sounds lame as shit since I did it in middle school but like we could all like, study stuff and make bad puns."

("I'd give you advice about cooking but I basically just know how to fry an egg and make decent red sauce," Toni says to Kara. "The egg's pretty fast, though.")

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks a little relieved to hear it's a microscopic animal and not something rampaging up 5th street. "Don't get eaten by something while you're in there," Cait suggests to Nadia. "No one would know and then we'd all feel awful about it."

She finishes her meal tidily but quickly; Caitlin's manners are at least slightly better than her appetite. "There's no reason we can't all do some cross-education," Caitlin agrees. "Designate like... a day a week where we all have to speak French, or Spanish or something. Learn some vocab. I'd teach you all how to write Python but I'm not sure that exactly translates," she says, and grins a little mischeviously.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie arrives with a kind of frantic haste that suggests possibly running (or flying! is that a bug in her hair?) to make it, even late. But she's here now, bursting into the place in a bit of a flurry of motion. While she looks as she mostly always does (youthful summer casualwear), hardly dressed for a fancy occasion or a nice restaurant, the specialness of the moment may still be marked by the fact that she's carrying a little boutique shopping bag. Without much explanation to the flustered maitre d', she skips by a few tables toward the one crowded with recognizable younger folks in the back.

"Ohmygawwwwdesses sorry sorry. I was helping at the Embassy but I had some work left and my mom kept me until I- sorry!"

At this point, she shuts up, and thrusts the bag out toward Toni, held uncessarily in both hands. "Happy birthday!"

Then she looks around at the rest of the gang and whatever bits of conversation she manages to catch. "Ugh I'm having enough trouble with my ancient Greek. Also it's summer. Schools out!" Learning, boo!

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara is drinking Sprite when Nightwing asks her if Kryptonians can get fat. She tries not to laugh, but a smirk breaks through, and she's trying not to choke on her soda. Luckily she manages to swallow her drink before disaster strikes. She's holding a hand to her mouth now, "Wow.." She clears her throat, "No.. no we can't. Not on Earth anyway.."

When Donna speaks to her in Kryptonian she grins, "How's the studying going anyway?"

When Toni offers her to help with her cooking, she too gets a smile, "I'd love to cook with you some time anyway! We can make omlets.. you know if there isn't a world shaking crisis to avert in the next few days.."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Woah it can be a /sandwich/?!" Nadia seems suitably impressed with Toni's revelation of fancy chicken in a sandwich, moreso than whatever she had to fight before coming that made her late.

"I'm not going to get eaten Cait! Well at least not willingly, but I'm pretty good at escaping. Once I shutdown the engine it lost interest and I was able to lure it away with some EMP grenades." She grins like fighting strange microverse creatures is definitely no big deal.

"Cassie!" Nadia waves enthusiastically when Cassie shows up. Apparently she wasn't the latest one after all. "Oooh Ancient Greek! I need to learn more of that, too! So I can communicate better with the Amazon Scientists!"

"Ooooh can I learn Kryptonian, too?!" Nadia turns towards Donna and Kara, attention flitting here and there as she is easily distracted. "I want to study Kryptonian SCIENE! too!"

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing digs into his scampi when it arrives, smiling at Kara, "Lucky you. Meal like this means twenty extra minutes of exercise for me to keep fitting the suit right. Man, not fair. You get the strength, invulnerability, you can fly _and_ you don't have to watch your diet. Some people have all the luck."

Considering the discussion of languages, he nods and chimes in, "I'd be kind of interested in learning Kryptonian too, actually. A completely alien language would be an interesting challenge, and make a really good way to communicate if we all learn it, can just about guarantee nobody will be able to spy on our communications. Heck, we could yell plans to each other and be secure."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
He's late! He's late! For a very important date! No time-

Oh, you know the drill.

"Sorry I'm late!" Terry's voice chimes in as he makes a rather frazzled entrance. He's in his civilians (which means human form)- even though his identity is public knowledge, dressing up /is/ a lot easier when you're not covered in fur. His usual casual threads have been replaced by an elegant but understated button-up long-skeeved black shirt and slacks, the ensemble having the unfortunate and unintended side-effect of accentuating how pale he is. He looks like he is on his way to an Interview With The Vampire midnight showing.

But it's the thought that counts, right?

"Toni! Tanti auguri!" He says, making a beeline for the birthday girl, a gift bag with a colorful wrapper is offered, "I'm so sorry if I'm late. Lois had some briefings..." he stops, and takes a breath. "Hi everybody!" he says to the rest of the assembled friends.

He's been working late for Lois. That means that at least four cups of coffee have been consumed. And it shows.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna greets Cassie with the traditional huge smile, and perhaps to Cassie's relief, with a little back-up too! "Honestly, let's not do the linguistics thing. Not everyone is into language, and I don't want to discourage people turning up to the tower. Can you imagine if word got around that everyone stayed away from the Tower on Tuesdays to avoid having to speak French? The crime rate on Titans Language Day would soar."

    It would also be somewhat unfair, as some Titans have an advantage when it comes to learning languages. Kryptonians and Amazons seem to pick them up fast, a fact Donna acknowledges with a grin to Kara -- the pair have only been teaching each other their native languages since the beginning of the year, but depsite a relatively crowded schedule that hadn't allowed for that many lessons, both knew the other was becoming pretty proficient. The other Titans had learned this when Kara had spent a lot of her time on Themyscira chatting with the natives in their own language, and when Donna had taunted Zod into acting rashly in Kryptonian the last time he'd shown up.

    On the other hand, learning Kryptonian science? "You know what Vic thinks of that," Donna tells Nadia with a grin. "He's all for examining Kryptonian tech, but never wants to ask Supergirl for explanations. He says doing that would be like playing a game with cheat mode active."

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni gets up from her seat as Cassie comes in with great enthusiasm. She steps forwards and accepts the bag from Cassie, before advancing one step to give Cassie a brief hug. "Hey, it's cool," she says. "I'm just glad you're here! Order whatever you want. I'm eating this like, half of a cow, it's great."

IT IS NOT HALF A COW, but it is like 20 ounces of prime rib. Maybe Toni doesn't get fat any more either. Alternately: BIRTHDAYYYY IT DOESN'T COUNT IF YOU EAT IT ON YOUR BIRTHDAAAAAY

"I wasn't thinking necessarily like something that hardcore, but we could definitely like spot each other on translations, and if you DID start studying - ancient Greek, for instance - you'd be like, hey, I should get with Cassie or Donna, that kinda thing," Toni explains, before slicing off another piece of her prime rib. homfh

Her eyes flick to Dick, over to Donna, back to Dick, then to Cassie, back to Dick again, then Kara. At this point she's able to swallow.

"In my office as birthday girl, Terry, I forgive you," Toni then says with arch-argentine majesty. "Look at the menu and eat some calamari. Is she making you do all her work for her? My dad says she's doing gotcha journalism and going on Twitter and stuff but, like, what does he know, right?"

"Could he like make the owl app but for Kryptonian?" Toni asks Donna then before killing some broccolini.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara is clearly enjoying herself, she can't help but laugh at the suggestion that everyone in the Tower learn Kryptonian, and an owl app at that? Then comes the request to learn Kryptonian science. Kara laughs again, then stiffles it, "Oh.. oh you're serious! Okay.. well.. it's not impossible. I can show you some things.. well maybe. I'll talk to my cousin and see what he thinks about it if you really want to learn!"

She glances over at Donna again, "Right.. Vic would have a field day. I don't think it would be a bad thing! But.. yeah let me ask Superman about it first!" She's not going to name her cousin by name here, even though it's a private party, still too risky.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie is forgiven! Salvation!

Toni gets a (non-crushing) squeeze back, and then, just like that, she's ready to join in on the party. Especially the food part! Foood! Are they talking diets? "You know I'm not actually sure about how all that works. Like, we all do so much training, work out with super-weights, whatever... so like, it's kind of hard to tell? What if we stopped using our powers and just sat around eating cheetos and watching TV?" Wait, she's NOT describing an average day at Titans Tower? "I know I've been kinda working extra hard for summer." Swimsuit season! How much of this is just something she's gotten used to through the majority of her non-heroic lifetime is another matter.

Regardless, she's grabbed a menu, and started looking. She goes with eggplant parm with some kinda pasta side (to rub the carbs in Dick's face, obviously). Was someone talking parm earlier and that got in her head? Or maybe she's just in a parmesan kind of mood!

"I'm you wanna learn you should probably bug Donna more than me," she also advises, as those theoretical Greek lessons go.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Thank you, I shall be forever grateful!" He actually curtsies. Terry is forgiven! However, he doesn't get salvation- according to Sister Mary Ignitious Of Our Blessed Heart Of Jesus, he is absolutely irredeemable.

Then again, she said that right after the Pool Incident, so-

"We're learning languages? Oh, if we're learning Kryptonian and Themysciran, I wanna enroll. I think it'd be a blast- everybody says I'm good with tongues!"

The redhead sits himself down and persues the menu and hmmms. "Everything looks too good. I don't know what to decide because at this point, Gar would be choosing half of everything and then the other half for a doggy bag..." he glances up, "He's sorry he couldn't come, by the way. He had a Make A Wish thing..."

He manages to go down from hummingbird-level to ferret-on-crack, so he's managing to winding down a little. His brain catches up on Toni's remark and says, "Oh, no, she's not making me do all the work. Just some. I don't think Lois is allowed on twitter anymore, not since the incident with the governor-" is he serious or is he joking? It's hard to tell.

Toni Monetti has posed:
Her cousin... Toni contemplates the matter of Superman for a moment while eating another big bite of beef. Basking in the glow of hug. Of company. She answers Terry eventually, "I think we're like, discussin' it because everyone knows different languages. I agree we don't want to harsh vibes. That would suck."

Her attention focuses on Terry. "Oh it's cool. Take a goodie bag for him when you're done, if you want, or pack something up, it is /absolutely cool/." She then purses her lips in a complex sort of way at Terry's declaration of Talent.

This seems to make her think --

Toni raises a hand. "Hey," she says. "I wanna take a moment here and say:"

"When I was a little girl, I was lonely most of the time," Toni says. A pause, for thought.

"I'm not a little girl any more."

"And I'm not lonely, either." Toni smiles, then, and puts her hand down.

"Thanks. All of you, and the folks who couldn't make it, too."

"OK so," Toni tells Cassie, "is this just in general or are you eyeing a particular like, suit? Like we gotta start somewhere. One piece or two?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
"Ah, good, you guys made it! Heya Cassie, Terry, foods great, so find something that sounds good and catch up with us." He's finishing off a scampi dish, not worrying too much about the carbs, they'll get worked off.

He shrugs, "Yeah, maybe Titan wide language lessons aren't in the cards, but it'd still be cool to learn. So yeah, if you don't mind talking to him, I'm up for it at least."

He looks over to Toni with a smile, "And that's just the feel we want the Titans to have. We're a family, not just a group who fights bad guys."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Cassie's talking herself down," Donna objects. "You can totally ask her for Themysciran lessons. She might not be a native, but she's getting pretty good. Supergirl and Caitlin are both getting there too."

    "However, if any of the rest of you are serious about learning Themysciran, we're actually going to be running a Themysciran course at the Arts Center. You could all sign up!" Donna smiles at the thought. The the idea of everyone on the Titans chatting to each other in Themysciran on missions amuses her greatly, and she is a bit of a zealot when it comes to spreading the benefits of Themysciran culture, which are undoubtedly superior to every other culture in her mind.

    When Dick talks up about the Titans family thing, it elicits a fond smile from Donna, and she nods her head in agreement. "Toni... I was pretty lonely growing up, too. I mean... raised on an island where the next youngest person was three thousand five hundred years older than me didn't make for a lot of playmates. I was ten when Diana returned to the island and gave me someone closer to my own age to play with, and she's almost nine hundred years older than me."

    She breaks into a wide grin. "When I came to America and met the Titans... well. It's as Nightwing says, a family. We're here for each other. And you're part of that too now, Toni. A Titan, a friend, a part of our big crazy family."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Returning from a detour to the young ladies room, Nadia arrives back just in time for her not one but two chicken parm sandwiches to reach the table. She eyes the ostensibly fancy Italian cuisine rendered into sandwich form like making a sandwich out of it should be against the rules but somehow has been allowed anyway and that should make it taste all the better. "Oh my god, this is so good. Your recommendations are the best Toni! ..I just might be able to eat 30 of these..."

"I will definitely sign up!" She informs Donna after swallowing another mouthful of chicken parm sandwich. "Will any of the scientists be coming to the Arts Center?" It's a seemingly innocent question, but the prospect of learning more about this new branch of SCIENCE is undoubtedly one she will pursue with the utmost zeal should the opportunity present itself.

It is only then that she notices Vorpal's arrival, "Oh, hi Terry! When did you get here?!" And stuffs some more chicken parm sandwich into her face.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara smiles too when Dick mentions the Titans being a family, she can't help it, "Awwwwe.. Nightwing! You're family to me too!" She glances down at the goodie-bag and the video that is -definitely- going to make her cry at this point, if there was any doubt in her mind about it before.

At the talk of everyone learning Themysciran, she turns to Donna, "Count me in too!" She finishes the last piece of her pizza, "Ugggh.. I could eat another one of these. Definitely yes.."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I do okay," Caitlin objects to Donna's aside. "It's just the conjugations that keep tripping me up. I'll figure it out," she affirms with a crisp nod.

She looks around, an odd expression on her face. "I mean..." she hedges, and looks at Donna and Toni. "I think almost everyone here has that in common. Growing up a little loney. I mean, except for DNightwing," she says, and gestures at Dick. "But his dating life is gross to think about." She wrinkles her nose at their resident Lothario, the expression vastly insincere.

"I think that's what makes the Titans so strong. We all kinda know hard it sucks to..." fingers flex, grasping at the air. "I don't know. Be on our own."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie's reaction to Toni's heartfelt moment is a somewhat over-exaggerated "AWWWWWWWWW." Yes, she's teasing a little. But not too much! "We're all pretty great though, it's true." Then she glances over as Donna describes her own past. "Like, I dunno, compared to most of you my childhood was kinda normal and boring. BUT, I guess that makes it more important that I met a lot of people I could learn the ropes with. It's KEPT things feeling normal, even when they are most definitely not that."

After a moment, this topic is forgotten as Toni's more aquatic fashion specific question provokes a moment of thought.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...." An extended (and verbalized) moment, apparently. "Well, I've got a couple I've been eying, and another place I wanna go and shop, still." She is a little cagey when she finally speaks, as if this topic is some matter of secret intelligence, not wanting to tip her hand. Then, at a lower, faux hush-hush volume: "I'll take you next time?" OK, well, not a secret from Toni! But perhaps these are items intended to be revealed with greater fanfare at whatever inevitable Titan's summer party events. They do have several swimming pools!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Still undecided, Terry is clearly paying more attention to the conversation than the menu. "Oh, I'll sign up for classes! If enough of us sign up, we could go out to dinner after lessons and practice with each other!" It is remarkable how much of Titan life revolves around food and get-togethers. It's fortunate that patrols burn up so many calories, otherwise he would look closer to his Disney screen version than his usual sleek self.

He grins at Toni's toast, "Hear, hear. We're all a family here, and I'm the cousin y'all try to keep locked in the attic but somehow always finds the secret passage back to the foyer... but in all seriousness, I know what you mean. Unlike Cass here, my childhood wasn't quite normal. I don't think it's common for an eight year old to accompany his mom on a stake out, but..." he looks around "I might be wrong. Right? ... right?"

Toni Monetti has posed:
Toni smiles at Nightwing; at Donna. To Donna, she says, tilting her head forwards, "That must have been -- I guess you wouldn't have known anything different, huh."

Toni rocks back in her seat as if ingesting the enormity of what Donna had to deal with. She opts to deal with this with more meat, which is disappearing pretty briskly. Her eyes go back to Nadia and her enthusiasm for SCIENCE as well as CHICKEN PARMESAN.

She still has her mouth full when Cassie tips her a secret plan. Toni nod-nod-nods and gives a wink and a thumbs up before going for a sip of water.

So this is family, huh, she thinks. It is pretty good, for once. I hope they don't come back for me, Toni thinks, not about the Titans; but then she's working on the potatoes, and potatoes tend to cure many spiritual ills.

Dick Grayson has posed:
With a raised eyebrow, Nightwing protests mildly, "Gross is a little strong, I think. Some people do, you know, enjoy going out with people. It's not like I slept with everyone I went on a date with or anything, geez."

"But yeah, my growing up was kind of lonely too. Batman is a great mentor, but, you know, not exactly the 'let's go play catch' type. So finding the Titans was a big thing for me too."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara sips her Sprite and listens to Nightwing, "Yeah.. he can seem pretty severe most of the time, very serious, but he's not a machine. Well at least not that I can tell!" She laughs awkwardly and then finishes her thought, "But I can tell he cares, a lot, just like we do." She smiles.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "On the money Toni," Donna says. "I /didn't/ know any different. Coming to America was a real eye-opener. You've seen Themyscira now, you can probably imagine. Not only where there no children around when I was growing up, but I was sixteen before I ever saw anyone who looked aged, or unhealthy. Or watched television, or drunk coke, or a million other things. It was an experience coming here. " Donna glances with a fond smile to Caitlin and Dick, who remember her from the time when there was a lot more than her accent that marked her as foreign. "But a very good experience. I guess the idea of an extended family was always very important to me, because that's kind of what Themyscira is. Everyone was my big sister. I count myself blessed that I came here and found a second one with the Titans."

    "Terry, you'd be most welcome to sign up. Supergirl, you probably don't need to. The classes will be starting with the basics. But we now have a dozen Amazons working at the embassy and the Arts Center, and they will all be happy to help you practise your Themysciran any time."

    She tilts her head to Nadia. "That's a question that is still being debated, to be honest. My mother is a bit dubious about the notion of allowing /too/ many of the ideas of Man's World infecting her Amazons, and that includes science. I think she's concerned that they may return to Themyscira in favor of my heretical notions. Of course she doesn't yet realize that they're /all/ going to return to Themyscira supporting my desire to install a permanent connection to the internet, because as it turns out, Amazons love watching funny cat videos on Youtube."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Robot. He's a total robot," Terry says to Kara's reply, completely stonefaced. "I've figured it all out. Vic provides the battery packs, and he has a hollow center where Robin goes in to pilot him. He's small enough. It all makes sense!"

Setting the menu down, he grins and looks at Dick. "And to proveit... I'm up for redecorating- you know. The thing we talked about before? I'm pretty sure he won't kill be because of Aasimov's first law of robotics."

He pauses, and glances at the conversation between Nadia and Donna. "Wait. Amazons like cat videos? I just realized something. If I stayed in my cat form...I could visit Themyscira, since I'm not technically a /man. but a cat, right?" He glances at Nadia, "Do I hve a scientific leg to stand on on that one?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia glances back at Terry after demolishing yet another chicken parm sandwich, while also eyeing the beleaguered waiter as if she may well make another order. "I mean, there were make animals on the island, so maybe? Depends how much they count the man of your Cat-man-ness I guess?" She in turn looks to Donna having no actual idea how Terry's Cat status would fall within Themyscira's rules.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I feel like if you showed up in cat form and told Queen Hippolyta 'hey it's cool I'm a cat, it doesn't count,' she might decide to have you killed for trying to be way too sneaky for your own good," Donna says with a grin that suggests she's not being /completely/ serious. "But let's be honest, you'd just um and ah and blush a lot and fail to get the words out, so the issue would never arise."

    There is an awkwardness for Donna about this conversation though, and it shows up briefly on her face. "Look, this isn't some annoying rule written down somewhere that is there to be worked around. It's a conscious choice by people who had a very good reason for making it. But that also means that it's not... set in stone." Actually it is, but only literally. "One day I will bring you all, guys as well as girls, to Themyscira. But it'll take a while. Mother is..." she pauses a moment to consider her words carefully. "Making changes. But it takes time. Diana and I had to do a lot of persuading to get her to agree to the steps she has already taken. This is a big step, but it's not an impassable one. A very few men have visited Themyscira before."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing shakes his head, "Terry, only you would think to try using a technicality to get around a two thousand someodd year old rule set by the immortal chosen of a goddess. SOmehow, I think you might get into a tiny bit of trouble. But you, know, that's just me. Maybe you like living that much on the edge. But yeah, I'm thinking Donna has a decent handle on what your reaction to the Queen would actually be." He grins and winks at the cat, "Might be best not to give it a try."

He looks to Donna, "Heck, she came here, didn't she? There are changes happening, it seems, so we'll just have to see how things go."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry sullenly stares at his glass of water. He is not reddening, he is merely a little bit sunburnt.

From the moon outside.

"... I wouldn't... fall... over..." he mutters quietly and takes a sip of water. Rather, he sips for a long time. At least until his 'sunburn' has passed. Amazing, how his skin can recover.