8060/Paradise Island, Acrobat Style

Paradise Island, Acrobat Style
Date of Scene:	30 September 2021
Location:	The Great Stadium
Synopsis:	In Themycira, Donna shows Dick the Great Arena and lets him play with her childhood toys.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Dick Grayson

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Donna Troy has posed:
    It's only going to be a short visit to Themyscira. Donna had said this to Dick pretty much as soon as they'd actually established that there was going to be any visit, though it was a little longer before she broke the news to the other Titans. There were political reasons why the first visit of men to Themyscira in two thousand years should not be an extended visit. There would be some disappointed Titans. In the three days they'd have there though, Donna and the other Amazons were going to make damn sure the Titans got to see as much of it as possible.

    It's Donna's home, after all. She'd wanted to bring Dick and the other Titans here for years, and for most of that time she couldn't even admit to them that the place existed. Finally getting to show them around is a dream come true.

    It's also quite an experience for the Titans, visiting it for the first time. It's one thing to see the place in photos or hear about it, it's quite another to see it for yourself. It's kind of history meets Lord of the Rings come to life.

    The first thing they'd seen much of was of course the palace, where the Titans were staying, and where they had a chance to spend a restful night after the exertions of fighting an army of zombie centaurs. For Dick, brought up in Wayne Manor, the luxury was not that startling, though there are obvious differences. Where Wayne Manor largely has Alfred, the Palace of Themyscira seems to be humming with activity. The whole place is a whole lot more /military/ than Wayne Manor is, too.

    The second thing that Dick at least was going to see was the Arena. Donna had caught up with him the first morning after the battle to take him to see the place, while most of the other Titans were still asleep. It's not a long walk from the palace, but there's plenty to see on the way. When they arrive at the giant cliff-top arena, there aren't many people around, but Dick and Donna are soon ushered inside to take a look, and as they come out through the athelete's entrance into the Arena floor, Donna turns to Dick with a grin as wide as any he has seen her grin in the years they have known each other. "So, what do you think?" she asks.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Looking around the arena, Dick is grinning as well as he takes in it's various features. "Oh, this place looks fun. I'm guessing you spent a good amount of time here, right?" He considers the center of the arena where the obstacles and gymnastic challenges can be seen.

    Then he takes a few steps forward to get a better view, trying to figure out a few of the challenges currently visible. After a moment or two's consideration, he nods to himself and adds, "Ok, I think I see how some of those work. Not entirely sure if someone without some level of superhuman strength and dexterity can actually manage all of them, but it looks like a heck of a workout."

    "So is this a look but don't touch visit, or can we have a little fun?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Whenever I could find an excuse," Donna admits with a smirk. "More to watch and dream than to participate at first, of course. But then..." she gives a little shrug. "We're very keen on athletic displays and games here. So the arena gets used a lot. But not every day. So even as a kid I got opportunities to enjoy a jungle gym like no other from time time time."

    She calls out to a group of Amazons close to the machinery near the center of the arena, exchanging a few quick words of Themysciran with them, and soon they set about turning the great wheels of the machinery, causing some of the equipment to retract into the floor, and other pieces to rise up. A complicated framework of metal bars and rings, a series of narrow columns and walkways, suspended hoops and steady rings forms up to make a course which looks like it wouldn't take superhuman abilities to manage, but would still provide a solid challenge even to an acrobat of Dick's caliber.

    "We can have a little fun," Donna replies with a laugh. "Call it a perk of being a V.I.P visitor, hmm?" She inclines her head to Dick and gives him an 'after you' gesture. "Think I'd bring one of my oldest and dearest friends to a place like this and not let him have a go?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
    As the obstacles change, Dick is already plotting a course through, around or over them. Turning to Donna with a smile, he nods and heads towards the center of the arena at a jog, answering her with "Yeah, I thought so. They probably had to drag you out of here. And no, I don't think you'd be that mean, but I had to ask before playing with someone else's toys."

    Reaching the first piece of the course, he looks up, then starts climbing at a good pace. Once a bit past the center point, the whole thing starts to rotate as his weight unbalances it. He keeps moving toward the end as it's rotation speeds up, preparing for the jump he saw would be needed while he was looking the course over. Once it's slightly past the horizontal, he moves up to a crouch and then leaps for the platform.

    He lands on his feet, having let the swinging ladder's momentum add to the distance he could jump. Considering the holes in the barrier before him, he takes a running jump to reach one that he estimates he can fit through, slipping through to reach the various rings and bars. Here, since he's not in a race, he stops and looks around from his current lofty perch, taking in the view of the blue ocean still ahead of him and smiles, calling out, "It's a heck of a lot nicer than Gotham, I'll freely admit. A person could get used to the lack of noise and pollution."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna follows Dick onto the apparatus, letting him go first and build up a bit of space so they can both make it through the course without getting in each other's way. She at least starts the course without cheating -- which is to say she doesn't seem to be trying to take any routes that require superhuman leaps, and she doesn't use one of those bursts of sudden speed that can even give Wally a moment's doubt before he /really/ gets going. As a consequence, Dick's superior acrobatic skills have him drawing further and further ahead. She does finally cheat just a little to catch up, taking the leap from the swinging ladder without waiting for it to swing forwards, a leap that definitely requires that bit of extra Amazon-ness to pull off. As a consequence she's not too far behind him when he pauses his routine, and she catches up to stand on the pole next to him, looking out at the view with him.

    "Getting used to noise and pollution was quite an experience," she says with a laugh. "And I started off with Manhattan, not Gotham. Still..." she looks around, glancing at the seating surrounding the arena. "This place gets pretty noisy when we're having a celebratory game, believe me. It's quite an experience during one of the big festivals. The crowd gets as enthusiastic as any football game, and it probably booms more because of all the stone. Also..." she looks back to Dick with a broad grin. "The smells are better. No bad hotdogs. Our favorite mid-game snack is skewers of grilled meat."

    She lowers herself to take a seat on the top of the pillar she has come to a halt on, swinging her legs, enjoying the warm morning sun on her face. "When I first arrived in America I was even more green than when I first met you. This was all I had known. I remember my first day in New York. Diana telling me there were eight million people there. In Themysciran, a /myriad/ is ten thousand. It took me a moment to register that she didn't mean eighty thousand. That already seemed like a big number. When it hit me that she meant a hundred times that..."

    She gives a shrug and a laugh, looking back at Dick. "I love this place so much, Dick. But I love America too. You, Cait, Vic, Rae... you guys were the first real friends I had in my life. Nobody my age here. The Titans... it's my home. But so is this, and I can't tell you how much it means to me to be able to show it to you. I hope we'll all be able to come back soon, to have a proper visit. Bring a few more people too. Maybe bring Batgirl?" She arches an eyebrow with an oh so familiar expression of mischief. "Or Stephanie. I'm not judging."

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Reaching down, Dick swings himself down to a seat in one of the rings, tilted slightly to be able to see and talk to Donna easily. "Well, crowd noise is a lot different than the constant sounds of cars, trucks, planes and everything else that our 'modern' world has to throw at us." He shakes his head and continues, "It's the result of those numbers you just talked about. It's a lot easier to keep things pristine when you talk about a population in the thousands as opposed to millions. Just feeding that many people requires all kinds of industry, and that runs right into causing noise and pollution."

    "I imagine it could be done better than it currently is if we threw a heck of a lot of money at making the system better, but I don't think we'll ever get back to a mostly green world." He shrugs and answers her with a smile and nod, "I'd like to be able to come back, yeah. This place is just amazing. I've never felt better after a night's sleep, must be the pure air and healthy food." He nods when she talks about the Titans and home, "Yeah, I've got that to a lesser degree between Gotham and the Titans." The comment about Batgirl and Stephanie simply elicits a reply of "Yeah, she'd love it here."

    With that he lets himself fall backwards, catching the ring with his knees to swing around and catch a bar as he releases the ring, swinging around it to flip into the air, ending up standing on top of the apparatus next to where she's sitting. "I could spend hours just figuring out all the fun I could have on this part of the course alone. Must be a dozen ways through this, I assume the trick is figuring out the fastest one." He looks around at the course, then nods, "I bet I could be competitive on this if I could use my toys. There's only a couple places I can see that I can't make as I am. Pull out the grapple for those, I think I'd be good." He looks over to her and adds with a smile, "Shall we continue?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna doesn't pursue the question of Batgirl and Stephanie. When they were younger, she would have. These days she seems to enjoy being provocative more than trying to guess people's identities, which is probably a relief. Which is not to say the topic is entirely left behind though...

    "So..." Donna begins, with a broad grin that means she's enjoying something a little too much. "Cailtin made me say this. It wasn't my idea, but you know what she's like. Island full of gorgeous women. Men visiting for the first time in two thousand years. Cait's worried about what temptations may be thrown your way. Made me promise to get you not to cause a diplomatic incident."

    She looks up at him, bursting into laughter and giving a shake of her head before scrambling to her feet to stand on the column again. "Themyscira is blessed by the gods. The rest of the world will never be quite like this, and perhaps there are just too many people on the Earth now for it to ever be truly green. But I'd love for Themyscira to be an inspiration for the rest of the world, to at least /try/."

    Donna pauses for a moment in thought, then gives a faint smile and nods her head to Dick. "You'd do just fine. Maybe next time you can come during one of the festivals and compete in the games. That would be something to see."

    She drops suddenly backwards off the column, letting herself drop ten feet before pulling her legs up and kicking off from the pillar to launch herself backwards, to catch hold of a bar lower down and use her momentum to swing from it to land on a lower bar, then calls back to him. "Sure, let's continue!" Cheat. She swivels quickly around and starts sprinting along the bar towards a series of archways with ropes hanging from them, over a pool of water.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Since he's already standing on top of the course, Dick takes the easy option and starts running, leaping over any gaps he comes across. He assumes that in actual competitions this is not an allowed method, since it basically bypasses the entire 'jungle gym' section of the course. But then, Donna started cheating first, so why not?

    Coming up to the end of this section, he spots the ropes and takes a flying leap from the last bar, aiming for roughly the middle of the rope closest to him. Years of rooftop chases through Gotham have made him expert at quickly gauging his trajectory and the results of his momentum, so he successfully hits and grabs the rope, now swinging forward towards the next section. He's figured correctly, and at the top of the swing he releases the rope and lands atop one of the many poles sticking up out of the water, each step taking him to a new pole.

    For someone of his experience, the poles might as well be a pathway as he runs across them lightly, barely even looking where his feet go as he takes in the next section of the course. Reaching the slightly curved pathway at the end of the poles, he runs along it to then end then stops, looking far down to the ocean below.

    "I think here we have one of those obstacles I can't pass as is. Too high for a human body to hit the water, I'd need to glide down. At least, so I assume since the whole course brings you to this point and it doesn't look like any finish line I've seen."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Taking the high route (so familiar to one who was virtually raised running the rooftops of Gotham), Dick is quickly able to catch up with Donna on the rope swing, and overtakes her before they reach the path of poles. They race along the rows of poles at a pretty even pace, Donna's greater familiarity with the course making up for Dick's more precise foot positioning, and her feet hit the curved pathway just moments behind him. He can hear a laugh from her as he runs the last stretch of the narrow walkway approaching the lip of the arena, and when he comes to a halt to look over the edge she's a little further behind him, walking the last stretch to catch up with him.

    "You know I can fly," she says with a grin. "I could totally have beaten you if I wanted to." And that, Dick can be pretty confident, /would/ be cheating. For that matter, he has not seen anyone flying in the day since he's been on Themyscira.

    Donna had always been fun to train with on the acrobatic equipment in the gym at Titans tower. Generally none of the Titans could come close to keeping up with Dick's acrobatic excellence, but at least she could give it a good enough go to stop him from slacking. Now at last he really gets to see why.

     Back then she'd been known to cheat from time to time too, but to give her credit she'd never deny the accusations, just greet them with that familiar amused grin.

    "Probably best not to try that one," she agrees with a nod, joining him at the rim and looking down into the clear blue waters below. "That's spinal injuries sort of a distance, even for someone who knows what they're doing." She gives a slight shrug. "Sometimes it's a finishing line, but sometimes not. Amazons are built different. Other times... well the apparatus here is pretty flexible. We can rearrange it into a whole bunch of different kinds of challenge. The machinery gets worked on all the time to add new and exciting challenges. The women who maintain the arena take pride in producing at least one big surprise for all the major festival games. When we brought the girls here a few months back they didn't get to see this stuff. It was all under the floor to leave the space open for the kanga racing. That kind of takes a lot of space."

Dick Grayson has posed:
    With a laugh he sits down with his legs dangling over the edge, looking over and up to Donna, "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure flying would get you disqualified. No real point in such an elaborate course if you just skip the whole thing." He looks back over his shoulder into the arena and continues, "I think I may have to expand the training facilities. I don't exactly need room to race kangas, but there are a lot of good ideas here."

    Looking back to Donna with a smile, he says "Thanks for pushing for us to be allowed to come here. Even if it turns out we never get to come back, it's something I'll be able to look back on any time I need a little peace. That's important, I think, dealing with the bad all the time with nothing to balance it can be a bad road. I'll be able to hold this place up when things get really dark."

    He rolls backwards, pushing up with his arms to come to his feet again and asks, "So, what's on the official program for today, anything special? I imagine we should probably head back, but thanks for letting me play with your childhood toys."