7757/Another You: Which One's Evil

Another You: Which One's Evil
Date of Scene:	09 September 2021
Location:	Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Colette meets Colette, and everyone gets angry with everyone else. Apart from Bart. Bart's good. And honestly Colette is probably the second least angry at anyone, which is weird and everyone else should take a good long look at themselves in the mirror.
Cast of Characters:	Colette O'Connail, Kate Bishop, Bart Allen, Kian, Terry O'Neil

---

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Most people thought the Doppelganger Problem was pretty much over. It has been some months since the Tower had been attacked by someone's doppelganger, though it's known that there are still a good number of doppelgangers in the wild. This is a different sort of Doppelganger problem.

    Colette, Kian's English teacher and occasional Titan ally who had involved herself in the refounding of the Titans (with the result that she has picked up the nickname 'The Meddler') had been convinced she did not have a doppelganger. Terry, Kian, and a small number of other Titans knew different, because they'd met her doppelganger. Contrary to prior experience of doppelgangers, Colette's doppelganger is not evil. This may raise questions about this universe's Colette. Actually DoppelColette has proven so far to be quite nice, and rather helpful. She has been chasing her fellow Doppelgangers down to return them to her own universe, and had enlisted the help of the Titans in doing so. This resulted in a group of Titans rushing off earlier today to disrupt what turned out to be an attempt to bring ZZGU to Earth -- the ZZGU that exists, somewhere in space, in this universe. Fortunately the plan had failed. Less fortunately, Colette had tagged along for a laugh, and had discovered she has a doppelganger, who she assumed must be thoroughly evil.

    Terry had persuaded her not to try to kill her doppelganger, but things are tense, and explanations have been demanded of Terry. Terry, probably sensibly, chose to spend the last hour or so arranging help for a victim of the doppelgang, and has given the two Colettes a bit of time to calm down.

    In the main room of Titans tower sit two Colettes, under careful watch in case they... do something. So far the Colette of this universe, who for the sake of this scene will henceforth be called Colette1, has ignored the Colette of the doppelganger universe, who will similarly henceforth be referred to as Colette2. She has been glowering and playing video games on the big screen instead, while awaiting Terry's return. Colette2 is sitting more calmly, and has occasionally attempted to engage Colette1 in conversation, though so far the conversation has been relatively brief.

    It has also been incomprehensible. It's not clear what language either of them are speaking, but is sure ain't English.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Honestly Kate is wondering what mad gods she insulted in some previous life. Was it Set. Maybe Pan. She isn't sure. Coyote. Probably a trickster god.

    Definitely not Loki though, that guy seems like a real prick and also not an actual god, more a meddling alien.

    She sits watchingt the two Colette's ignore each other and occasionally converse in some sort of alien language. Maybe terestial. Maybe not. Fuck sake. On the bright side it does mean she actually wants to do her math homework, it is better than staring at the dopplegangers in silence at least. "I'm going to punch Vorpal in his snoot." she mutters.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen has decided to stop by Titans tower and check on things. The last time over he was busy explaining farts, today he has brought food, not mexican as he was not expecting to continue that explanation. No, Bart has brought Asian food, not just from one country but a couple to give the group and himself a chance to try a lot of different stuff. He zooms in setting stuff up on a table, along with a map, and a book about dinosaurs. He moves to find a seat saying "I brought food." and starts munching an eggroll, and stops, it hanging out of his mouth stunned for a moment. Are there two Collets there?" He shakes his head "Ok, time travel, other dimension, science fair project gone wrong?"

Kian has posed:
    "No punchin' anyone," Kian says, although he's mostly watching the 'twins' more than Kate.  "It iss not Terry's fault we haf more Colettes than usual."
    He looks on neither Colette disapprovingly, just curiously.  "I haf always thought there was more to you than I thought," he remarks, "but I never expec' there there were more *of* you than I thought...."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry has been avoiding coming back. In fact, he made a quick stop by a pub that the wounded magician told him he could frequent to 'find people such as himself'- and, by golly, it had been true! After dropping the magician off at a healer, he visited the pub, and ran into an enchantress. And, against all odds, Kurt Wagner once again. After a bit of conversation, Terry felt ready to come back and face the music.

Speaking of which.

As the Cheshire Cat enters through the front door, his voice wafts upwards

~And now you see another me, I've been reloaded, yeah
I'm fired up, don't shut me down
I'm like a dream within a dream that's been decoded.
I'm fired up, I'm hot, don't shut me down!

I'm not the one you knew
I'm now and then combined
And I'm asking you to have an open mind (And I won't be the same)
I'm not the same this time around (Ooh)
I'm fired up, don't shut me down!~

Vorpal finally comes into view, and the smell of delicious fried goods is overwhelming. The sizabe bag that he is carrying reads 'Cafe Du Monde - New Orleans', and the Cheshire preludes his entrance by having the bag lead the way, as an offering of peace.

"I have arrived. And I have the best beignets in the world. Now we can talk." This is very much a type of Drachenfutter. "Oh Bart! Buddy! How are you?" He does not look at Kate, whose aura is positively red.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Fortunately it's quite easy to tell the two Colettes apart. Colette2 is dressed in military-looking battle dress, and her hair is her natural brunette color rather that Colette1's more familiar bleached blonde. Their accents are a little different, too -- there's something hard-to-place about Colette2's accent, which seems like not quite American.

    Colette1 glances up at Bart's arrival, before turning her attention back to the screen, where she's blowing up zombies. "She's one of those evil doppelgangers from that evil doppelganger universe," she explains. "For some reason Terry is going to explain if he wants to live, she's not to be punched."

    Colette2 smiles at Bart a little and shakes her head. "I'm not evil," she explains. "Zhed'Zhud'Ger'Uth's mind control didn't work on me. Back home I was part of the resistence. I've been here helping to track down other jumpers. The people you call doppelgangers. Actually I had wondered if my counterpart in your universe over there was the evil one, but mostly she seems to be just rude and grumpy."

    "Fuck you," Colette1 tells herself. Kinda. She gives Kate a long-suffering look. "Any of that beer left? I think I'm going to need it."

    Colette2 says something in that strange language again, but Colette1 ignores it, as usual. She's settling back into her game when Terry puts in his belated appearance. "Terry. You better have the best explanations in the world, too. What the hell were you thinking?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "I'll punch Terry in the snoot if I want to Birb." she clarifies. I mean to be honest she will probably arrange training scenario thrashing Terry to put him through his paces as punishment later. She is petty like that sometimes. It is also good for him.

    Kate sighs a little bit at Bart's arrival and the back and forth there. "Beer is in the fridge like always Col." and she looks at Terry. Red is a mild way after he went to fucking New Orleans instead of actually showing up to deal with this mess he has somehow created. "Hand over the Beignets if you want to live O'Neil."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over to Terry and waves his hand "I brought food too." He offers to the other. He looks back tot he Colettes and says "They never ran into an evil me, but I think that maybe either cause of the connection to the speed force, or maybe cause I am from the future. I mean, if you look at all the times, people run into other thems, with the Flashes it never seems to be the same us. So it maybe something about the speed force connection, I don't know." He rambles a bit, and looks over to Kian "Brought you a book about dinos, before we take our trip to the savage land ." He offers.

Kian has posed:
    Kian sighs exasperatedly.  "No one iss punchin' anyone," he repeats, and fixes Colette1 with a look.  "Before you start makin' accusations about who iss an' iss not good, I remin' you of what /you/ tried to get me an' Gar an' Terry to do in the museum."
    He just leaves that there, without further explanation.
    "Bot' of you haf been a frien' to me.  I do not see a reason why you can not at leas' tolerate each other.  I am not even askin' you to like each other.  Jus'--"  Again, directed more at Colette1 than Colette2, since she seems the closer to losing it.  "--be calm, at leas' for a little while."
    He sighs, and turns a much calmer face and tone to Bart.  "Yis, I am lookin' forward to it," he says, accepting the book.  "I will make a good study of this."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry hands over the beignets to Kate, but not before getting one for himself. Reaching over to muss up Bart's hair (not that you'd be able to tell the difference), he says "Heading over to the-- okay, you're going to have to tell me all about it after I've sorted this."

He takes a bite out of the beignet and walks over until he is standing in front of the Colettes.

"Okay. Your first question- what was I thinking? I have a question for the people in this room who wear masks."

He glances at Bart, with a slight wink, and then he glances at Kate.

"Do you appreciate the fact that I keep your identities secret?"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette1 nods her head at Kate, and puts down the controller to head over to the fridge, pointedly ignoring Terry on her way past. "Probably in that universe you never came back from the future," she suggests to Bart. "Nobody in their right mind would touch it. Certainly not by /choice/. I can't imagine any reason why someone would /chose/ to live there, unless they were insane or evil."

    She glances back to Kian. "Need a kool-aid, birdy buddy? What I tried to get you and Gar and Terry to do in the museum was save people's lives. That's a good thing, right? I'm calm." It's not entirely inaccurate. She's angry, but she isn't yelling. "I'm not punching anyone. However much they would fucking deserve it. But I also don't want her to kill you guys."

    Colette2 gets to her feet shortly afterwards, to investigate the food that Bart had brought. "You're from the future?" She asks Bart curiously. "Logically anyone from the future would be even less likely to have a counterpart in my world. Most of the population was killed over the last forty years. I'm sure our future will unfold in a very different manner to how yours does, so in my world you were... will probably never be born to go back in time. And if you are, I imagine you'd take care to avoid visiting /my/ time, it's not exactly a nice place to visit."

    Colette1 eyes Colette2 suspiciously as she too approaches the kitchen area to investigate Bart's food. "Don't stand behind me, doppelganger," she warns her counterpart. Coming away with two bottles of beer and a kool-aid, she returns to her seat, offering one of the beers to Kate and the kool-ade to Kian on the way.

    "What kind of food is this?" Colette2 asks Bart, curiously. Apparently she has never seen Chinese food before.

    "Fuck masks. I explained to you why there wouldn't be a version of me in that other world," Colette1 tells Terry. "I was wrong about that, but point still holds. It should have made you even /more/ suspicious of her. She was born when ZZGU was already in charge, and she /chose/ to be born on that Earth. Why the hell would someone do that unless they're up to something?"

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "I do appreciate it, and sure, will tell ya about it." Then he is up and near the food. "This is Chilli crab from Singapore, this is three types of cury from Ari Lanka, Momos from the Himalayas, I believe Yak. Satya from Indonesia and that's Candied Haws, from China.. " He lists a good dozen more dishes and points at each one as he does. "I had to check on some Pandas experts, and thought I would bring back some food. (basicly stuff on this web page https://www.live-less-ordinary.com/top-50-foods-of-asia-asian-food/)

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate takes the bag, fishes one of the pastries out, sets the bag on the coffee table. "Terry. The difference between keeping people's secret identities out of common decency and super hero code.... is very different than harboring a doppleganger from another dimension whom may or may not be evil. Don't even try to equate the two."

    She accepts the beer as well and has beer and fancy doughnuts as she leans back. She is honestly not helping Terry with his case what so ever. There is no bailing his tail out on this one.

    Even with bribes.

Kian has posed:
    "Your means were not worthy of your goal," Kian says, hopping off the end of the couch and pulling himself up to his full five-foot-nothing, "an' do /not/ talk to me like I am a wingless chil'."  His wings spread and fold again; he doesn't seem aware he did that.
    "Do you know how difficul' it iss for me to trus' *you* wit'out bein' able to see your mind?  But I do, even though a large part of me says I can not an' *must* not because I can not reach you."
    His wings bristle and smooth out.  "I can not reach her mind either, so I have no more reason to trust you than her or her than you.  It shoul' tell you somethin' that I haf decide to trus' you *both*."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
He sits down. "So I should be suspicious of Diana of Themyscira who, while being able to live in an isolated and peaceful paradise protected by the gods, she chose to come to a world torn by war, strife, sexism and ignorance not once, but /twice/. What could she be up to?" Terry opens a Rabbit Hole and reaches into it, taking a soda out of the fridge without needing to walk to the kitchen.

"Or should I be suspicious of The Meddler who helped put the Titans back together where there was only sadness, anger and unresolved desolation? You didn't have to do jack shit of that, and yet you still did. And I am supposed to believe The Meddler of one world would not resemble The Meddler of another, seeing something broken and hoping to do something?"

He takes a sip. "To link back to my earlier question about masks, I kept her existence secret from you because she asked me to. Probably because she saw you would react like this. She helped us rescue scientists that Il Mutante was trying to use to open a portal to ZZGU's universe. She proved to me that she was a friend. And to Kian. And to Gar. So the two of you are telling me that you don't trust my judgement, nor theirs? Nor Caitlin, who was there during that first raid? I kept the secret of someone who helped us. And who could have easily killed us if she wanted to."

He stands up, and there is a very slight edge to his voice. "Because if you are going to insult me, it'd be better if you said it in plain words."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette2 nods her head to Bart, and asks "Is... is it okay if I try some?" She's very polite. While still looking over the assortment of asian foods, she says something in that same odd language again. Colette gives a short reply, though this time Bart may be surprised to find out that he can understand her. Colette1's reply was not in the same language Colette2 had been speaking, it's Interlac. An archaic form, but largely comprehensible.

    <<You are not a Martian. Stop (something) pretending you are,>> Bart is able to make out of Colette's Interlac.

    Colette returns to pointedly ignoring her doppelganger, and gestures towards Kian with her bottle. "I knew things about the situation that you did not. I suggested a solution to a problem that would minimize the chance of people dying, and hurt nobody. You guys chose to find a different solution that put lives at risk, because it conformed to arbitrary rules that were created in ignorance of the actual situation. It is not good to follow a bad rule, just because it's a rule. If there was a law that said you had to kill people with red hair, would you kill Terry? No, you'd do the right thing and break the law."

    "And it's nice that you trust her, Kian. But then you knew she existed. Who knows, maybe if I had time to get to know her I'd trust her. But I haven't, because /nobody fucking told me I had a doppelganger./"

    She lets out a sigh, and tilts her head in Terry's direction. "I've told you things, Terry. A lot of things. Put a lot of trust in you. I've saved your life more than once. And you met her, what, for five minutes before you promised her you'd keep secrets from me, secrets that directly affect me like that? That I had a doppelganger? So, you want to talk about who's insulting who without saying it in plain words?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Fuck off Terry." yeah she swore. "You don't get to claim the moral high ground here, you kept a secret from your team mates because a stranger from an insane dimension asked you too and led us into missions on their intel. Honestly you can fuck right off, so can Kian, Gar, and Caitlin right now." she points the beignet at them.

    "Frankly I don't care if you kept it from Colette, though that means you kept it from a friend. But you kept it from your friends and teammates and it could have but for the grace of the gods ended up with some of us killed or injured on these missions. I have no secrets from you all. None. So don't try to take the moral high ground with me on this trusting your judgement when you obviously don't trust me or the rest of the team you kept in the dark." she levers herself up. "You don't get to the insulted party here Terry. Fuck right off." she honestly just ignores the whole drama with Colette1 and Colette2. She looks like she may be walking out on the situation.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks to Colette2 and nods his head a bit. "Sure, I brought enough for everyone and if need be I can run out and get some more." He listens to the conversation between the others and frowns a bit. It seems maybe this conversation has some meaning to him as well. "Um guys right or wrong choice, it was made, and you guys are all friends. If ya need a moment take it, and remember how much you mean to one another. Yea it might hurt arguing with friends, but friends don't have to agree with one another all the time.

Kian has posed:
    Kian has the look of someone silently counting to ten -- or eight, in his case.  "An' iss it not worth noticin' that *no one* end up hurt or killed, an' that we *did* stop that thin' from comin' through to Eart'?" he says to the room in general, trying -- and for the most part succeeding -- at not sounding exasperated.  "There iss a little too much worry about what /might/ haf been an' was not, and not enough thinkin' about how to deal wit' what *iss*."
    When he returns his attention to Colette, he doesn't look angry or disappointed or anything.  Just tired.  "/Tavar'h/, if we had tol' you earlier, how would you haf reac' differen'?  I think you woul' haf been jus' as you are now, angry at bein' wrong about not havin' a double, an' scared about what that means."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Now, he looks angry. "And Nightwing keeps his identity secret from everybody except Donna, Vic and Caitlin. Why is he keeping secrets from his friends? Shouldn't he trust that we'd rely on the 'superhero code' you mentioned? I don't see you acting insulted by that. Nor by the fact that Donna doesn't tell /us/ his secret identity. Why? Shouldn't she trust us? Haven't we earned that? Why is she keeping secrets from her friends?"

He throws the can through a Rabbit Hole, land where it may in the world, and he points to Kate.

"No. She doesn't tell us because it's *not her secret to tell.* And yet you still trust her. What's the difference? Oh. Right. Terry is the fuck-up. He's the joke. You can't trust a joke. He can /never/ have sound judgement, only Donna can. Even though Colette didn't /have/ to tell us about Il Mutante opening a portal /today/ to get our version of ZZGU to this planet. All she needed to do was wait and say nothing to anyone. And then our world would have been over. But she didn't. But that doesn't matter. The joke made a choice you didn't agree with, and that's the problem, regardless of whether events proved him right or wrong."

Then his voice grows very quiet. "So fine, then. I'll fuck off. I The punchline is leaving." He reaches for his T-comm and lets it drop on the couch. Vorpal turns on his heel and makes a beeline for the elevator.

"I'll send for my things tomorrow."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "It's not about how I'd react, Kian /tavar'h/," Colette1 says. "It's about... suppose you were wrong? If you were wrong, she'd have killed you. And I couldn't have stopped her, because I didn't know she existed." Sometimes Colette fails her saving roll for pretending she doesn't care.

     "See! Two-point-oh gets it," Colette1 says, gesturing in Kate's direction with her beer. "Thank you, Kate. I mean, not about the you don't care that he kept it from me, because fuck off, but in general. At least you've got your head screwed on right! Always rated you."

    "And Kate doesn't even know how dangerous a version of me from an insane dimension might be. You do, Terry. You should have consulted me! Hell, if you'd at least consulted the rest of your team mates and you'd come to a joint decision, I could at least /understand/ that."

    "I had hoped it wouldn't come to this," Colette2 says calmly. "That we would never run into each other, and I would go home again without any of this ever coming out. But please don't shout at Terry about this. Either of you. And please Terry, don't go. Emotions are running high, this isn't... people are saying things they don't really mean. And this is on me, not on anyone else. I made Terry promise not to say anything. What would you have him do, break a promise? Maybe that was wrong of me. But Terry, tell her how careful I was to not give any of /her/ secrets away without finding out how much you already knew. Even though it would have been easier to get you to trust me if I'd given away more. And consider how much he'd have to reveal to explain to everyone else why it was a secret worth keeping."

    "Do you want to explain to them what you told me, Colette? About why you are so suspicious of a version of you being born on my world? You almost gave it away already."

    Colette1 shifts uneasily in her seat. "He already knows most of it," she says, but Colette2's response seems to have taken a lot of the wind out of her sails.

    Colette2 nods and smiles a thanks to Bart, before taking one of the momos, and sniffing it curiously. "Hawkeye, I am sorry. It's really my fault. I insisted. But I assure you that Terry wasn't taking risks. I gave him very good reasons to trust me. He, Gar, Kian and Captain Marvel all believed me. Can't /you/ trust /their/ judgement?"

    "Carol too? Fuck." Colette1 takes a long swig of her beer. "If you've done anything to her, I will find a way of destroying you," she says, oddly muted.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Make it all about yourself Terry as always." she sounds incredibly frustrated and angry right now. "No one thinks of you as a fuck up but you never seem to be able to admit when you do make a mistake unless someone forces you to appologize or acknowledge it." she points at Kian "I'm just as fucking mad at Kian, Gar, and Caitlin right now but you seem to have missed that and made this the Terry O'neil sob show hour once again."

    She stops takes a big breath "Just because you're a walking children's fairytale doesn't mean you have to always act like a god damned child Terry. Your older than I am ... so grow the hell up and be responsible for your actions and the consequences."

    There is a pause and she looks at the Colette's at the Captain Marvel business. How the hell do they even know Captain Marvel. Hell ... Kate has never even met her.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over towards the group and sighs a moment, and then moves to grab Terry's communicator, and moves to be in front of the man. Yea Terry can teleport, but if Bart sees where h e may just run him down. He looks to the other man and says "Pissed or not, take your communicator. If something happened to someone here and you could have helped them and you did not have this you would hate yourself." He sighs a bit and says "And don't quit, yea you all can be upset and pissed, but don't make long lasting decisions when your upset, that would be to impulsive, and you might regret it. Yes Impulse arguing against impulsiveness (no one is taking my gimmick damn it.) Take your com, take time, talk to Gar, and if you want to quit in a week do it, but don't do something like this."

Kian has posed:
    Kian's expression is that of a man counting to ten... by twenties.  Without a word, he bolts across the room and grabs Terry by the collar, plucking him bodily out of the elevator and depositing him on the couch.
    Ever wonder what Kian losing his temper is like?  We now present Exhibit A.
"You," he says, pointing a finger at Terry, "shut up an' sit down.  You are not walkin' out on the team, you are not walkin' out on Gar, an' you are not walkin' out on me."
    He whirls on Kate, finger still extended.  "An' you," he says, barely pausing for breath, "jus' shut the /fuck/ up, you are not helpin'."
    Next up is Collete1, same finger.  "An' you jus' shut up an' listen for once, an' maybe take half a secon' to realize that all the horribles you keep talkin' about /might/ haf happen *did not*, so maybe you do not know all an' see all /despite/ your opinion of yourse'f, an' that Terry an' Gar an' Marvel /q'Ten/ *and me* were right about your double an you were *wrong*."  Yes, he was definitely getting louder the longer that sentence went on.
    By the time he gets to Bart, remarkably, he's visibly calmer and less angry and the pointing finger points no more.  "An' you, Bart, I am sorry you are here to see this, but please stay, you are the las' calm head here."
    Turning last to Colette2, "An' you," he winds up, the emotional exertion showing as his faint blue glow -- it's been a while since he let that slip out -- "I think maybe right now iss a good time to jus' explain everythin' from the beginnin'."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
So the only time Terry saw Kian losing it, he left a crater of the person who made him /that/ mad. He doesn't move. He barely breathes. Kian has /sworn/. He just sits there on the couch, and only says one thing, in a thread of voice:

"-Imeanwehavetheapartment..."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Kian," Colette1 says, remarkably calmly even by her normal standards, let alone given what is happening. "Just because nothing bad happened doesn't make it the right choice. Ever heard of Russian Roulette? Every time you play, you have one chance in six of dying. The other five times in six, you're still a fucking idiot for playing."

    Colette2 nibbles at the momo, decides she likes it, and finishes it off hungrily while other people are yelling at each other. When Terry's seated again and Kian finished pointing fingers, she speaks up. "I can't really start at the beginning, Kian. It was a very long time ago." Colette1 tenses up. "Because then I would be giving away /her/ secrets as well as my own. If you and Terry and the others were right to keep my secret, it would be wrong of me not to keep hers." Colette relaxes a little.

    "I came to your universe for two reasons. One was to try to stop the leapers from my world harming yours, and to help get them sent back. I have spent months here infiltrating, uncovering leapers, passing information on to the authorities here. Il Mutante's group was just one of them. The other was to check on my own opposite number here, because just as she is aware of how I might have gone wrong, I was aware that she might have gone wrong."

    "So you've been spying on me," Colette1 says flatly. Her eyes go to Terry. "And my so-called friends have been helping you."

    "No, they've been telling me that my worries were misguided. I believe them. I wish you'd believe them that your worries are misguided too."

    Colette 1 sighs, glances at Kate, and takes another long drink of beer.

    "Hawkeye," Colette2 continues. "I understand your anger, and I apologise for causing this. I placed Terry in the others in an impossible situation. He could not have told you about the situation without breaking a promise to me, and probably not without breaking a promise to your Colette as well. He was very cautious of me at first. He was not careless with your safety."

    "Kian, you are right about almost everything, but I think you owe Hawkeye an apology. She has real concerns, and she has every right to bring them up. Dismissing her concerns as 'not helping' is unfair on her, and unreasonable."

    "Terry, Hawkeye and Kian both have a good point. You over-think things, and you're accusing other people of lacking faith in you when the reality is that you lack faith in yourself. I do not think you would be on this team if people did not have faith in you. You are very young and you make mistakes, but the greater mistake is to beat yourself up about those mistakes rather than attempting to learn from them and move on. My opposite number is angry at you, but I think I know her well enough to know that she would not be angry at you unless she felt disappointed, and she would not feel disappointed if she didn't think quite highly of you. At least... relatively speaking."

    Colette1 very pointedly says nothing.

    "Bart, your food is delicious and you are a very sensible person. I don't really have anything to say to you other than thank-you."

    "Il Mutante is gone, his followers are captured, I have a few more files to send to SHIELD and then I am done. I will ask them to send me back to my world, and none of you will see me again. There is no reason for my presence here to affect any of you any longer. However... Colette. You have good friends. If I have any influence at all, then let it be to encourage you to share more with them. You are afraid they will judge you for who you might have been, but they already know who you are."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Kian. You're in as deep as Terry and Gar on this and do not get to tell me to shut the fuck up like I'm the one who wronged anyone here." she just shakes her head. At this point Kate finishes her beignet, flips Kian of all people off with a powdered sugar covered finger, and walks for the quarters.

    "Also I don't care what the prisoner's dilema or whatever the bullshit was. I could give two shits about whatever you are all going on about with the Colette's. I am out of fucks to give." she looks at the room full of people "I'll be calling a meeting with Nightwing, Donna, and Gar. Gar can explain why you all did what you did and we can decide what to do about it." she pauses a moment longer at the door and just looks at Terry and Kian "I'm used to not being able to trust my blood family with all the lies and secrecy. I'm really disappointed in you both proving that I have to worry about my adopted siblings." one final disappointed and if anything hurt look. "Have a nice night." turning to step out.

    Totally out of fuck's to give right now. Her fuck's have totally flown the coop and she has a math test to finish studying for.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen heads back into the kitchen sighing a moment, he nods to both Colette2 and Kian, but is frowning a bit. He normally likes visiting the Titans, but today is a bit of a downer, he hmms a bit pondering how to help out more. Munching different food while thinking.

Kian has posed:
    "It iss not her concerns that are not helpin'," Kian says primly, watching Kate go, "it iss the way she spoke to Terry that was not helpin'.  An' everyone losin' their flight feathers over thin's that just did not happen.  We do dangerous thin's here almos' every day, so I do not see what iss differen'.  I haf put my life at risk more times in the las' year than I haf in my entire previous life.  If choosin' to trust someone is a danger, I prefer that danger to some /qokh/ groundcrawler beast putting an arrow through my wing."  He doesn't know if Colette's heard about their little underworld adventure, or what Kian did there.  He hasn't mentioned it to her yet.
    "Colette /tavar'h/, you cannot let your worry over what might have been but wasn't overrule what actually /is/.  Even *she* iss concern for *your* secrets, even though they are *also* hers to tell.  Can you look me in the eyes an' say that means nothin'?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Fuse triggered. "You don't get to leave without saying goodbye to me," Terry tells Colette2, and then lets go of the comm that Bart handed him. It plops onto the couch cushions.

"Kian, I am sorry. I am not staying here one moment longer. I'm not walking out on you or Gar- you know exactly where my apartment is. But I'll be damned if I didn't trek through goddamned literal hell with the rest of you, and then get personally singled out by the goddess of Discord herself for daring to stand with my team-mates against her, and kept everybody's secrets, just to get treated like /that./ This red-headed stepchild is peacing out."

He pushes off from the couch and stands up. "I'll be back at my apartment sometime after the weekend." Before Kian or anyone can follow, a dome of solid chaos magic covers him up. In a second, it vanishes, but so does Terry.


He lands in Gotham, because it's the last place anyone would look for him. His room at the Themysciran Embassy would be too obvious, and staying over at April and Harley's was also too predictable. Not to mention his mother's home. No, if he wants to be left alone, he has to go where no-one expects him, or knows to look for him. Crashing at the Planet's break room was a no-no, that was what Lois did.

He takes his phone out and looks at his contacts and thinks long and hard about it.

And then, he finally sends a text, and waits for the answer:

<<Lady Sif, are you available?>>

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette2 grabs another momo and takes a look around. "You're all good people. Far better than almost anyone on my world. Maybe even you, Colette. Try to remember that," she says. Around the room, shadows start to lengthen as if the sun were falling from the sky, and as they lengthen they gather around Colette2. "Thank you all. And good-bye Terry. All of you." The shadows pool and wrap around her, then suddenly fall back to their positions, and she's gone.

    Colette1 looks startled for a moment, then frowns and slumps back in her seat. She downs the rest of her beer, and pulls out her phone to tap out a message to Kate: 'Sorry. Don't know why I'm saying that. Not my fault. But sorry.'

    She gets up, walks over to the kitchen area, and drops her bottle in the recylcing. "I'm not angry with anyone," she says. "But I'm disappointed. Don't mean you, Impulse. You're fine. But Kian... and this would apply to Terry just as much if he hadn't chosen to do a 'screw you guys, I'm going home'... just think about it, okay? How would you feel if I'd met your doppelgangers, and didn't even fucking tell you? It hurts."

    She walks to the elevator and calls the elevator, her eyes cast downwards. After a few moments waiting, her eyes still not looking at anyone, she speaks up again.

    "Twenty-two years ago, I hid my memories from myself and chose to be born as a human being, on Earth. Here in Metropolis. So I would have a chance to grow up and define myself as a person naturally, without having... without having to listen to conflicting voices that were already very sure of themselves. To find balance. It was important I did that somewhere that I could develop as a person in a secure, stable environment. She thinks that was the wrong approach, because she says I was spared really experiencing the consequences of certain kinds of action. She chose to be born somewhere where she would be challenged. I think that was the wrong approach, because that meant her experiences were not neutral. She chose nurture over nature. I wanted nurture and nature to have equal chances to prove their case. My choice was the honest one, even if her choice makes her easier to like."

    The elevator pings, the door opens, Colette1 steps in and pushes the button to go down, without looking back.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over to the folks leaving and says "Well, sorry things went like that." He says to Kian. He will wrap the food up and put it in the fridge here since most have left. "If there is anything I can do to help let me know, I guess I will head back home sorry again."

Kian has posed:
    "You haf nothing to apologize for, Bart," Kian says, sounding very, very tired.  "None of this was your doin'.  I apologize that this happen in front of you, an' I apologize for losin' my temper in front of you.  It... does not make us look like much of a team."
    He collects the T-Comm Terry dropped.  "I will bring this to his apartmen' Sunday, an' I will wait there for him to come back.  An' I will try to convince him to come back to the Tower.  He can not gif up bein' a Titan over the angry words of one wrong person."