Owner	Pose
Terry O'Neil	In retrospect, it is quite unfair for him not to have leaves. This was Terry's train of thought, at which he had arrived after a long period of cogitation. Mostly involving what one might liberally call 'tripping balls'- the memory of Wonderland had returned, briefly giving him the memory of trees in the Woods of No Names, and for a brief period he had tried to photosynthesize, and that had yielded little fruit since he was made of flesh, and therefore could yield no fruit. He sits on the couch and sighs, glaring down at his toes, almost chastising them for the effrontery of not being roots, but instead he decides to enjoy the almost zen-like state that memory left him in, enjoying the golden sunset filtering through the large windows in the main room.
Donna Troy	Terry's reverie is interrupted by a smell that is distinctly out of place in a forest, as a hand waves a cup of coffee in front of him. Who offers cups of coffee to trees?     Olfactory memories are slow to engage, but after a few moments they start to come online sufficiently for the signal to reach Terry's consciousness, indicating that this is no regular coffee, but Raven's special blend. Which is odd, because what kind of tree even has a nose?     Furthermore it occurs to Terry that there are only two people who would likely dare even consider the notion of helping themselves or anyone else to a cup of Raven's special blend, and that's Raven herself or Donna.     Neither of whom are even trees.     Regardless of that, what exactly is going on here? Raven offering Terry a cup of her special blend seems unlikely. Far more likely she would delete him from existence, right? But wait, she did actually say something nice to him recently. What was that about? Was she admiring his woodlands or something?     Maybe it's Donna then. How could you tell? Neither of them have any distinctive foliage, so how can you tell them apart? Oh right, shiny thing. Bracer. Bracer on the wrist connected to the branches -- scratch that, /hand/ -- holding the cup.     That means it must be Donna.     Unless Raven has taken to wearing bracers. You never know with humans, they're tricky like that. Trees would never go around confusing people like that, by going around wearing /bracers/.     "It's /coffee/, Terry. For drinking, not for staring at. You look like you could use a cup." Definitely Donna.     Oh yes, moving your eyes. That's a thing Terry can do. It's Donna, standing by Terry, smiling down at him and holding two cups of coffee. Probably she intends on Terry taking one, and drinking the other herself. That makes sense. Wearing that weird fancy new armor she returned from Themycira with... when was that? Shortly before that whole thing with the Crown and the Scepter and the Hatter and the Caterpillar, and /having to dream Wonderland/. She'd shown him a sample of that armor a few weeks back. No, longer. When was it? Before Christmas. That's right. Pallas and been making her some kind of fancy armor, a hybrid of Themysciran armor design and American technology.     Christmas? Trees don't think about Christmas, do they? Not unless they are Christmas trees at any rate.     "Terry! Wake up! Take the damn coffee!" Donna says with a laugh.
Terry O'Neil	Branch ends bend. No. Fingers. The difference is in the fact that they don't snap when they bend too much. Fingers curl around coffee, and the smell of it slowly drags Terry out of the memory and into the present, into the flesh and fur and Coffee In an instant, he is sipping the coffee eagerly, like a dry tree takes to rainfall. "Oh. Oh I /missed/ this!" the feline says longingly. Raven's coffee is one of those things that you don't taste but fully experience, and it's definitely one hell of a comeback. The Amazon gets a look, as if to make sure it is really her. Name. People have those. "... Donna!" he says, as if conveying the name to her in some sort of bizarre ceremony. "Donna!"
Donna Troy	"That's correct, I'm Donna," Donna says. "And you're Terry." She sits down on the couch next to him, the cushion beneath him shifting slightly with her weight, something that /never happens/ in a forest. Then she scruffs up his hair affectionately, which is something that /never happens/ to trees.     She leans back comfortably, sipping her own coffee, and watching Terry over the cup. "I see you are not perhaps one hundred percent back with us, but I'm sure that will happen with a bit of time to adjust," she says. "I thought maybe there might be things you wanted to talk about. But it can wait. Perhaps a nice cup of coffee is more important right now."     She gives him another bright smile. "It's good to have you back, Terry."
Terry O'Neil	"It comes... and goes," he says, exercising his tongue. He needs to stop thinking about it as whistling in the wind. "Sometimes I just get... full of Wonderland. But I'm back. Right now..." sip. "This coffee helps..." It was strong, It was grounding. "It's good to be back... I missed everybody so much..." he pauses and frowns, "... it's a little hazy but- what exactly happened? I remember the meeting room, Gar hugging me, and there was someone very pale they called Dream, and a girl that looked like Harley's subconscious on acid that Kate called... Dee?"
Donna Troy	Donna sits in thoughtful silence for a good half-minute before answering. "That was Lord Oneiros and Lady Mania," she says finally. "They are not gods. They are older and more fundamental to the universe than gods are. What happened -- wasn't exactly what was meant to have happened. But it all seems to have worked out in the end."     She shifts in her seat a little, troubled. "Raven and I travelled to the Dreaming, to the realm of Lord Oneiros, to petition him to bring Wonderland into his realm from which it sprang. It was the best way of ensuring Wonderland could continue without a dreamer constantly generating it from the raw substance of Dream. Apparently Lady Mania seems to have decided she had some interest in the matter too. The pair of them seem to have decided to interview a few of the other Titans to help decide what to do about the Wonderland question, which was not our intent. Fortunately nothing bad seems to have come of it."     "The upshot is that Wonderland is now secure, without needing to be constantly maintained by a dreamer. And you are back."
Terry O'Neil	Blinks a couple of times, taking this in, as well as taking slow sips from the coffee. "Oneiros. Mania." He shakes his head slowly, trying to wrap his head around the root of that. "I... you went and did that? Wow..." he scratches his chin and glances at the Amazon. "I remember favors being talked about. I wasn't really... there... but what's with that, Donna? What did you guys agreed to do?" he asks, eyes growing a little wider. "Gar doesn't seem really to know what it means. I get that he just wanted me back, but-"
Donna Troy	"Nothing we wouldn't have done anyway," Donna tells Terry with a reassuring smile. "What we asked them to do -- is no small thing. It benefits them, or perhaps more properly it benefits their domains of influence, in the long term. But there were other solutions they might have considered that would have been less trouble to them. We agreed we would give them some limited help with those troubles in the future, if called upon."     "What has happened to Wonderland is no small thing. Instead of being a self-creating parasite realm, it has now become... well. I guess you could say that it has become the multiversal equivalent of an official nation with UN recognition rather than some unrecognized micro-nation. That involves more than just redrawing lines on a map though. It represents a disruption to the fabric of reality, and that may take some time to settle down. There is the potential for... well, the metaphysical equivalent of border disputes. We may have some peacekeeping missions to go on."     She gives a little shrug and takes another sip of her coffee. "Honestly, I'm not too worried about that. Everyone was very eager to offer their swords for the cause, to get you back. But I negotiated good terms. In the end, fixing problems is what we do anyway. We are the Titans after all."
Terry O'Neil	The cat rubs the back of his head, contemplating the ramifications of what they did. Everything is trees. Choices branch. So do conversations. It's like leafing through a giant choose-your-own-adventure book. "... thank you. For getting me back. I mean... I regret that it all got so complicated, but I didn't really see a way out." He frowns, and glances up at Donna. "There were a lot of times I wished you were there. I'd gotten so used to you having advice for me. And suddenly people are looking at me like I'm the expert. And before I know it Nadia has a cult form around her, Gar has my Cheshire soul, and Jon is getting eaten by the Jabberwock." He lets out a laugh and rubs his forehead, "Dear god I could have gotten everybody killed!"
Donna Troy	"That's exactly why I wasn't there, Terry." Donna leans forwards again, cupping her coffee in both hands, resting her elbows on her knees and staring forwards.     "Why do you think it is that I often have to remind people that I'm not the team leader?" She asks. "I'll tell you. It's because people keep seeing me leading. Here's the thing about the Titans. Any time you have a group of people going into a crisis, you have a choice. Either you stop to debate every time there's a decision to make and thus can't act quickly enough, or you trust someone to make the calls that need to be made quickly. We don't have leaders, but we have people who are better than others at making those calls."     "Normally, what we're doing is fighting. I'm good with fighting. I'm good with strategies, with small unit tactics. With coming up with answers to questions that need to be answered without hesitation, and getting the answer right a good percentage of the time. It's something Philippus has been training me to be good at for a long time. Because in her mind one day Diana will be the queen of Themyscira, but Themyscira will also one day need someone who can replace /her/ and she sees me as the obvious candidate. It's the one thing I'm confident I'm actually quite a bit better than my sister at, Terry. And the Titans benefit from me taking charge when that's the situation we're in."     She tilts her head back to look at Terry as she continues. "But there are other situations. If we are in a situation that calls for an understanding of magic, Raven's the one who calls the shots. When it comes to matters of technology, I will always defer to Vic's leadership. And so on. When it comes to a trip to Wonderland, who else but you would be the right person to be making those calls that need to be made quickly? You're are Wonderland expert."     "And if I wasn't around for you to look for advice, that's because I didn't want you asking me for advice. That slows you down. That was a situation where the Titans needed Terry to be calling the plays, not Troia. If I had been there for you to lean on, you would have been second-guessing yourself all the time. You would have been looking to me for confirmation and approval, rather than acting quickly."     "You don't have a lot of faith in yourself, Terry. You look for reassurance and approval, and that can be fatal for a leader. You don't think you're trusted. But you're wrong. I wasn't around to give you advice, because I trust you."
Terry O'Neil	"Faith, now there's a funny concept!" Terry shakes his head. "I was missing that bruised-knuckle Themysciran wisdom." The cat lets a smirk blossom. "Not that I felt mistrusted, I just... have never really done this before. And looking back, there's things I wish I had done differently. " He sets his cup down on the coffee table. "A week or so before it all went down, Jon had a talk with me and he asked me what I thought would happen if the Red King woke up. At the time, I suspected it wouldn't be good- but I pushed the thought aside because there were a lot of other things in play. I didn't truly think about it again until we were in the midst of it all. And then the King *did* wake up. And when everything started fading away, I didn't see another way to stop it but to do what I did." He pauses then, and looks to Donna. "Did I ever tell you what my father did, when he found out mom was pregnant?"
Donna Troy	"There are always things you're going to wish you'd done differently," Donna says with a grin. "That's part of leadership. And also part of life. The first major mission you headed up and it was a success. You should be proud. Yes, when you realized the way you were going was likely to cause that problem, you should have paid attention rather than putting it aside, and you should have consulted. That's the kind of question, when you've got time, that getting other people to look over your answers is a good thing for. But you're learning."     Donna watches Terry's face for a few more moments and then leans back again, one arm over the back of the couch, sitting comfortably and sipping more coffee. "Remember that first day when I came back to the tower, that business with Raven? That night, after we all went to our rooms, Rae and I stayed up hours talking. You know what I did once Rae finally fell asleep? I cried. Not because of the stress, because of... all that. Tears of joy. Because I had been building myself up to returning to the tower for years, and the last thing I had expected, the last thing I had planned for, was to find you and Kian and Kate, three totally new Titans, as young as we had been when we started the team, being as brave and as noble as you had been. It just... it seemed so impossibly /wonderful/. If we hadn't met a few days earlier, I wouldn't even have known your name. I hadn't had the chance to catch Kate's name, or Kian's, yet. But I was so overwhelmingly proud of you all. Of your /potential/."     "If I'm hard on you sometimes Terry, it's because of that. Because I see so much potential in you. I see how high you could fly if you only spread your wings. Don't let your self-doubts drag you back down to the ground. You, and the other young Titans, you have it within you to reach up and touch the stars."     Hadn't Donna given this speech to him before some time? No... not exactly. That hadn't really been Donna, had it? On the stairs in Tartarus...     "Your father left her, right?" Donna asks. "Did you worry you were abandoning us in the same way, abandoning Gar and Kian? Or did you worry you'd be abandoning Wonderland if you didn't sacrifice yourself to save it?"
Terry O'Neil	He's not crying. It's just rainwater trickling down from his crown. The leafy kind, not the Red Kingly kind. He brushes at his eyes at Donna's words in his best 'I am totally not crying' affect. "He... fucked off to supposedly look for an artefact capable of going back to Wonderland. He was tracking down something like that box... but what I really think he was doing was... not thinking about it." He sniffles and rubs at his eyes again. "It was a painful thought, and it was going to hurt someone he loved. And there were 'more pressing concerns', so he didn't think about it, he thought about something else. And then he stopped existing." He nods, "I... think now that I just didn't think about it because I didn't know how to tell Gar, who's already lost so many people. And I was hoping, right until the end, that there'd be another way. One that didn't end up with me fading away, and that I'd be able to find it." He exhales a little and reaches for the coffee. "I've apologized to Gar. I didn't want to leave him and Kian- but I couldn't abandon Wonderland. And that's what I would have done, you're right. My father abandoned it. My father abandoned my mother. I promised I would be better than my father. But aside from that... they are people. How the hell could I just let a whole world die because I had two great guys waiting back here for me?" He exhales again and closes his eyes. "So... maybe I didn't do everything the right way, but at least I managed to be a little better than my dad. And that's enough. For now. But I can do better." He takes a sip of his coffee, and smirks. "And it turned out alright because the rest of you were there to pull me out of that mess."
Donna Troy	Donna grins slightly and wraps an arm around Terry's shoulders, pulling him close. "If you have a flaw with all of this Terry, it's that you're prone to forgetting you are a Titan. That you are part of our team, and part of our family. Yes, you should have talked to Gar and Kian about what you were planning in advance. Not because of letting them down gently or anything, but because if you'd brought this up to us before hand, we might have been able to come up with an alternative."     "But on the other hand?" She gives him a squeeze. "Terry, we're Titans. And that very much includes you. There was no way we were going to leave you there if we could find any other alternative. Remember when we were in that black hole, and you were worried you'd never see Gar again? Remember what I told you? We're Titans. If there is a way, /we will find it/."     "I'm not going to judge your father. I never met him. I don't know what his justifications were, what his thinking was. But I know this: you did what you did to save lives. You were willing to sacrifice /everything/ for the greater good, and there is no better definition of 'hero' that I can think of than that. Gar knows that. Kian knows that. Never for one second tell yourself that what you did requires apologizing for."
Terry O'Neil	Terry sniffles and hugs Donna back, "T-that means a lot, Donna. But I did need to apologize to him for not telling him. I took a choice away from him by evading- I'm not going to do that again. I know better now..." He purses his lips. "You know... I really need to stop getting lost in other dimensions. This is the third time it's happened to me. Something Kian has pointed out at length. In English and his own language. Do you think... we've had a very rough couple of months. Maybe we could go spend a week in Themyscira and just... relax?" he says, hope and voice rising with every syllable until it's in the 'pleeeeeease' range. "I /have/ been taking lessons at the Arts Center, you know. I might actually be proficient enough to ask where the bathroom is this time around."
Donna Troy	"Hmmm." Donna lets Terry go and gives him a very serious look. "Okay. You are allowed to apologize to them for not letting them know in advance. I will permit this." The serious look gives way rapidly to a grin. "As long as you remember that's all you're apologizing for. You have been magnificent throughout this whole business, Terry."     She settles back again, drinking coffee thoughtfully. "As for Themyscira... maybe. Remember that you going there the first time was a special circumstance and a big deal. I'm not sure we're quite at the vacation spot place yet. I can ask mom, but I won't make any promises."     Is there a hint of reluctance in her tone? Possibly. "Maybe if we can come up with something to justify it beyond just wanting to take a week off," she says. "Some special training or something."
Terry O'Neil	Magnificent? He sniffles, and then pretends it's allergies. "Oooooor..." Terry says, swishing his coffee around, a crafty look coming over his features, "Considering your mother hasn't given any exclusives to anyone just yet outside of the press conferences at the opening of the center, and when her army came over to help... what about a special interview with a certain Lois Lane about that upcoming cultural exchange program you mentioned at one point? Lois could be the first. After all, she is a prominent and important journalist from Man's World. And she does constantly drop the hint at me that she desperately wants to be the first." He sips his coffee. "Either that, or we go train so I can become Wonder Boy," he says, now slipping into full humor, "Because, let's face it, I'd look great in pteruges. I've got the legs to pull them off..." He taps his cup, "Okay, we'll put a pin in it. I'd offer Wonderland but I don't think that's a vacation spot any one of you but Nadia wants to actually see in the near future," he smiles a little.
Donna Troy	"I'm not putting Themyscira completely off the table," Donna says slowly. "Just... that it needs some justification. And the cultural exchange thing is my idea. Diana is in favor, but I haven't exactly completely sold mom on it yet. We have been pushing her pretty hard, you know. The spaceport was a huge step, and I'd like her to be convinced of the benefits of that before we go further."     She nibbles her lower lip thoughtfully. "Lois though... I mean not about the cultural exchange thing as a subject, but... that might be interesting. Might be valuable for the queen to talk to her, get that different perspective." She grins and nudges Terry with her elbow. "And I'm sure you'd just love to be able to say 'Hey Lois, I've got this interview lined up for you..." "As for Wonderland... hey, speak for yourself. I never got to visit there, remember!" Donna laughs and shakes her head. "More to the point though, I think vacations are best /away/ from where you've been working. Wonderland isn't going anywhere though. "     "And you might want to think about saying thanks to Rae about that, Terry. I know you're convinced she sees you as being marginally worse than something unpleasant she found on the bottom of her shoe, but she really went to bat for you on this one. The other Titans don't get what we just went through, so take this from me. She went to negotiate with one of the fundamental powers of the universe to get you back. That's not something someone who actually knows what they're doing does lightly. You might want to remember that."
Terry O'Neil	"You're kidding me? I'd be in Lois' good books for at /least/ six months after that- that's like, a historic chance," Terry grins, nudging Donna back, "And I might actually get a raise this time. Not that that's been a concern, really..." not since he started dealing chocolate to Kian's royal family and they started paying in Rhodium. Terry was, for the first time in his life, actually solvent. But then he grows serious. "No, I know. Believe me, Donna. Rae said things to me when she came to see me at my mom's house. We both apologized for some things we had said in the heat of the moment... and she told me." He nods slowly, "I plan on thanking her. When I am no longer hallucinating and might potentially mistake her for something weird and Wonderlandish. Right now before you came in I was thinking I was a tree..." he chuckles. "But yeah. Rae came. She met my mom. She went into-" His voice trails off, and his eyes widen. "... she went into my room. And she took pictures, and... oh god." An alarmed glance. "Does Rae have the password for the Titans instagram account?"