Owner	Pose
Hippolyta	It was the evening of an eventful day in Themyscira- the island had seen the first visit of a foreign dignitary since its inception, and there had also been the first talks of collaboration with foreign nations. Themyscira was poised to become a player in Patriarch's world after so many cneturies of isolation, and yet the news that rocked Hippolyta were not those developments, but something far more personal, far more painful. The princess had been summoned to the Queen's chambers, once the festivities had died down for the night. The day was not over, however, not for her. The Queen of the Amazons awaited the arrival of her daughters, standing by the window and glancing out, something held tightly in her hand.
Donna Troy	When Troia arrives, she has changed -- back into a more traditional Themysciran mode of dress, a mid-blue himation over a deep blue khiton down to her ankles, hemmed with gold thread. Her feet are bare, common enough indoors in an informal environment, and the elaborate silver hair decorations she had worn to the meeting is gone, replaced with a simple jade hair comb that holds back the coils she wears her hair in.     Another mark of the informality she is treating /this/ meeting, she brings with her three cups and a bottle of dark golden wine, a Themysciran style that's slightly sweet but warming, a pleasant evening drink.     "An interesting day, mother," she calls out as she enters, as much to indicate her arrival as it is to pass comment in what is, after all, a pretty obvious fashion. There has been no foreign dignitary visiting Themyscira in more than two thousand years, and the palace is abuzz.     She places the three cups down on a small side table and pours out three drinks in silence. She leaves the bottle on the table with one cup, picking up two to bring one over to the Queen, joining her at the window and offering the cup but no more comment. She's curious exactly what this meeting is for. The summons had the air of something more than social, and yet were it official business it would be the senate Hippolyta would wish to address. What then? Hippolyta won't want to explain herself twice, so Troia contents herself with the wine, the company, and the view from the window.
Diana Prince	Diana had gone on a bit of a tour with T'Challa before she returned to speak to the Queen as well. She'd stopped off in her bed chambers to change as well, only unlike Donna, Diana arrives in... A red baseball jersey with stylized logo on the chest, and white trim along the edges. She still has her white skirt she'd been wearing on, but the jersey contrasts quite obviously against the Themysciran styles. On the chest of the jersey it reads 'EAGLES' with 'Themyscirans' in smaller font on the tail of the 'S' that sweeps back under the rest of the word. A golden Eagle sweeps above the text, with its wings wide apart majestically! Diana also wears a smile on her lips, and carries another jersey in her arms, folded over her bracers. The name 'Hippolyta' can be seen over the numbers '00', though it is upside down as it drapes over Diana's arms. The Princess just looks to Donna with a little grin as she comes to a stop, then looks to her mother with a calm and casual expression, like no big deal at all...
Hippolyta	The Queen turns around at Troia's arrival and gives her daughter a calm but warm smile. "Very interesting indeed, daughter. And it is far from over." She takes Troia's cup with a grateful nod of her head and turns to the window. "The Wakandan King is an interesting man, and his land appears to be just as interesting." Her eyes flit briefly to her daughter, "What did you make of the Dora Milaje during the games?" At Diana's entrance, she turns around to greet her. "Diana, what is it that you have there with you?" she asks casually, after having sipped from her cup, her eyes on the garment draped on Diana's arm. She takes the logo on Diana's jersey with a glance, "Are you working on a proposal to change the palace guard colors?" she says, the hint of a smile in her voice.
Donna Troy	"They are very disciplined," Troia answers Hippolyta quickly, arching an eyebrow and giving an amused smile to Diana, but otherwise leaving no comment on sports jerseys. "Perhaps too disciplined. Their dedication is exemplary, but they seem a little rigid in the application of their skills. We did not see them fight with a range of weapons... obviously they favor the spear, and base much of their fighting style on using the length of their spears to impose distance and control the battle. They are very skilled in this, but I felt they were limited in their reactions when someone gets past their guard. There were several methods they used to recover space more than once, delivered almost identically, which leads me to believe they have a very rigid training program. I assume they have found this method most effective to achieve an optimal result with a relatively short training period, but it makes them more dependent on accurately predicting their opponents' moves."     "Their equipment is very well designed for the use they put it to. I see evidence of a high degree of refinement in what they do; a system of combat and equipment working together that suggests they have perfected it over generations. I would class them as truly excellent by the standards of Man's World."     "Were we one day to battle beside them I would recommend separate units. I do not think they would co-ordinate easily or well with people who utilized combat styles they were not used to. They will tend to operate on their own and consider anyone fighting along side them more as a natural obstacle to their opponents than a synergistic part of their own efforts, and this would be inefficient. Though partnered with a group of amazons employing ranged attacks, they would be an effective front line force. If on the other hand we were to one day battle against them, I would recommend allowing them to engage at spear-tip range, letting them space themselves as their combat style requires. Then rapidly shift targets to outnumber individuals, forcing them into larger spear-point movements to defend and exposing them to flanking attacks where they can be overpowered, to whittle down their numbers. This type of engagement would allow us to remove them from combat slowly but surely with minimum risk of harm to either side."     Is this what Hippolyta was expecting? It would be if she'd asked Philippus the same question. The General's influence on Troia is hard to miss -- when Troia's in the right mood at least.
Diana Prince	While the combat briefing is given to the Queen, Diana shows a soft smile and approaches her mother. She offers her the jersey and just gently shakes her head. "These were made for us. We've been asked to participate in a sporting event. You have... grown quite popular amongst the people of the mortal world, now, you know?" She says to the elder woman in the room. "Since your appearance outside of Metropolis... people have been craving more and more of 'The Queen of the Amazons'." And of course she chases these words with a playful grin before she steps back toward where Donna is. "They want you to throw out the first 'pitch' at the start of the next Major League Baseball season too. An American sport. You see." Diana, beside Donna now, reaches over to put a arm on her elbow. "You have one too." She tells her combat-smart sister, before she looks back to the Queen again. "And Donna is very accurate in her assessment. I concur with it. Though I will say that the people of Wakanda would be open to united practices together, so in time, it is possible that our fources could fight on a battlefield together more ... cohesively. I do not think there is a nation in the rest of the world that is more in-line with our own values and faces the same manner of... complications, that we do. Opening relations with them seems very wise."
Hippolyta	Hippolyta looks amused, glancing at the jersey. "I did not know that they had become so taken. It would not be the first time." Her mind briefly goes to the perfume bottles, the frescoes, even the dolls that the Greeks had elaborated in ancient times, fascinated with the Amazons they had never even met. Evgenia often brought such trinkets with her after escorting Hypatia back to Patriarch's world during one of her visits. "It seems harmless enough. I think I will consider it, Diana," she says, "After more pressing things have been seen to." After all, that teleporter would make it fairly easy to do, right? "Your assessments are prescient, daughters. I do suspect that we will find greater things in common with them than we suspect." She takes another sip, and turns back to look out the window once again. "There is something that I must tell you."
Donna Troy	"The teleportation device would make such things much easier," Troia points out, echoing Hippolyta's own thoughts. "I'm not sure if it would be possible to have it in place in time for that, but perhaps. If you agree to switching on the satellite internet, then before I leave I could fix up a single connection just for your private use, direct to the embassy, and you could call any time to ask for a progress report."     Her voice remains business-like, but Troia does not bother to hide the small smirk she flashes at Diana, for this is the final piece of her internet planning. The bribe. What mother could resist, when faced with the choice -- to be able to call her daughters up whenever she wants, or not? Of course Hippolyta knows that this is a part of the package, but when it's laid out there in plain Themysciran like that, can she resist? If she agrees to just this single connection, it's not like the whole of Themyscira will suddenly be paralyzed into an indolence of cat video watching. But if one single connection exists, it's only a matter of time before more and more connections exist. Maybe it's just a matter of introducing things gradually...     Troia nods her head in agreement with Diana's assessment of the opening of relations between Wakanda and Themyscira. "We are nations with interests in common, and with things we can learn from each other. Their king is a good man, and still young. The decisions he makes -- and the interactions we have with them, if we chose to interact more fully -- have the potential to shape their nation for years to come. And working alongside their engineers would give ours the opportunity to fill in gaps in our knowledge in areas they excel."     "Atlantis has perhaps even more in common with us, but the political situation there is more complicated. I believe we should attempt to move in the same direction with them, but more slowly."
Diana Prince	Diana, and Donna, both have their unique ways of working with their mother. Both come at the same goal with different approaches, and both approaches are likely something Hippolyta is well aware of too! Diana just laces her fingers together in front of her lap now, as she listens to both of them reply, and a little more of Donna's insight in to all of this. "Yes... The Atlantean court is quite an experience in and all itself. I have... really enjoyed my delving in to it, though I can clearly see why the likes of Arthur avoids it at all costs." She gives a look between the two before she flashes her mother a smile. "Wait until I show you the Barbie they made in your likeness." She then teases in good humor before she pushes her smile aside at her mother's more serious tone. She knows that tone. Something important weighs on the Queen's mind, so Diana quiets and waits for it to be elaborated on.
Hippolyta	The queen is silent for a few seconds, gathering of strength in silence. When she finally speaks, it is with an even tone and a quiet demeanor. "As you know, my daughters, I had two sisters: Antiope and Penthesileia. All of whom are counted among the fallen." She takes a sip from her cup, and then sets it down on the small table. "We honor Antiope's heroism in defending this island, and we mourn Penthesileia's fall at Ilios. But what we have never told you... what we have never /said/, is that I had three sisters. My third sister, whose name was cursed by us in sorrow and pain. I myself forbade that her name and her memory be ever spoken on this island." She glances at Diana and Troia, "And so, as it their way, the gods have seen to it that I must mention the unmentionable and remember the immemorable once again."
Donna Troy	Troia's eyes widen briefly and she glances in Diana's direction for a moment. A hundred things come to mind for what she might say at this juncture, but she choses to say none of them.     There has always been something wrong with the history of Themyscira as Hippolyta, and her historians, have recounted it. Troia has known this for a long time. A lie of omission is no direct falsehood, but it leaves gaps in the truth, and over time a truthsense bears witness to those omissions. It has never been enough to provoke /questions/. When she was old enough to be suspicious she was too concerned about seeming ungrateful, and when she was old enough to feel accepted she was old enough to figure out that anything unspoken probably hurt too much to speak about.     There were some painful experiences for the Amazons in the early days, after all. Before they came to the island paradise of Themyscira. Troia assumes that this mysterious fourth sister relates to those times. Something even more painful than the loss of Penthesilia at Ilios, for Penthesilia is well-remembered on Themyscira, and Troia herself was, she assumes, named in that sister's honor.     No, now is not the time for speaking, it's the time to listen. She tops up Hippolyta's glass with the crisp golden wine, and gives her a sympathetic nod.
Diana Prince	For Diana to not be told of such a thing, after hundreds of years of being here on the island, not just with her mother, but also with Antiope for all of that time... Why would they not tell her of this, let alone one of the other Amazons who may have known. When Donna looks to Diana, she'll see her older sister just staring at their mother's face. Her dark brows furrow a little, creasing that space between them on her forehead. "What...." She finally says then as she takes a step toward Hippolyta, before stopping herself. It is not easy for Diana to not lay a peppering level of questions down upon the elder, especially with the past 100 years of her life being as fundamentally changing to her person, but she holds her tongue. Instead, Diana walks over to a seat in the Queen's chamber, and lowers down upon its edge, her back remaining straight as she has to look away to the far side of the room... 'Mind blown' isn't enough of a phrase..
Hippolyta	"My dear Penthesileia fell in Troy, as you know," Hippolyta continues, aware of the stunned look on her daughters' face. "It was the slaughter therein that led the Five to chastise us and assign this island to us as our penance. My sisters Antiope and Melanippe were by my side as we set foot on this island and, for a time, we were grateful. This new land would serve as a means by which we could cleanse ourselves of our transgressions, where we could start anew, our minds set towards the purpose The Five had set for us." She grows silent, then, and walks towards the window, her voice growing strained as she stares at the moonlit landscape. "I do not know how long Melanippe plotted. Whatever thorn, whatever dark thought lodged within her and would not let her go, I do not know- but she had not accepted the yoke of the Patrons as readily as some of us thought. She thought the world of man needed the fire of the Amazons, and that in retreating here we were failing a test that had been set for us. That the right answer had been to turn back." Her voice grows lower in tone, breathiness in her sound. "They came at night. Melanippe and the Amazons she had brought to her side, to believe in her cause. They invaded the palace... and before the day had dawned..." A breath. "Amazon blood had been spilled. By Amazons. We were taken unawares, and before we could regroup, Melanippe had left the palace and her troupe set off towards the horizon, aboard the very ship that had brought us to Themyscira." Her hands grip the frame of the window, tense. "We had never built another ship. We had seen no reason to..."
Donna Troy	And there it is. The unspoken secret history of Themyscira, told for the first time to the two children of Themyscira, too young to have lived through it...     Almost.     And this, then, is the truth at last.     Almost.     Troia walks up behind Hippolyta, and rests a hand gently on the queen's shoulder. "Mother... I'm sorry. I... I see now why some of what Diana and I have asked of you has been hard. Before this other sister's thoughts had turned dark, she must have spoken words to you that those we sometimes speak to you remind you of. When we talk of engaging once more in the World of Men, when we speak of how they need us, it... It must revive painful memories. For that I am sorry."     "For all that our words and our urgings may sometimes remind you of that other sister, and those that followed her, there is no thorn that could turn us aside from our paths and onto a darker path. Themyscira is... we both love Themyscira too deeply. There is no lack of love for Themyscira as it is that moves us, it is that we have grown to love the world beyond these shores as well, and we wish they could all benefit from the paradise you and your other two sisters made here. Please... never forget that. For me... and I am certain for Diana too... it is not the fire of the Amazons we wish to bring to the World of Men, it is the love of the Amazons and the wisdom of the Amazons."
Diana Prince	Diana keeps staring across the room, not looking at Donna, or her mother. She just sits on the edge of the chair and listens to Donna comforting the Queen in her decision. A decision to keep this information from them, from Diana for nearly a thousand years? Diana does finally look back over at them both now, as she stands up from her chair. "Perhaps, if given this knowledge, it may have ... altered how we acted. How we decided to do the things we do, to say the thing we have said. Perhaps... if given this information, sooner, we would not have put you places that would make you feel as Donna has said..." She trails her words off there, it is clear she's not very happy about this coming out after all this time. Antiope was, obviously, important to Diana. But to have heard the stories of another sister of her mother? Some part of her feels ... as if these things were something she deserved to have been given long ago? "I..." She stops herself then and walks toward a further away window to look out to a different section of the city below, her back to them both now. Which would probably be more impactful if she wasn't wearing a Baseball jersey with 01 on it and 'Wondie' in letters above the numbers.
Hippolyta	At Donna's touch, the Queen slumps- it is a slight shift in her always-erect posture, but in her it is significant. "My daughters... I could not. I would rather that that memory be consigned to oblivion itself. That my own sister, whom I loved as dearly... comitted the greatest transgression an Amazon could be capable of..." She doesn't look away from the window. "Eventually I saw them. They traveled the Earth. Many died. The Patrons turned their back on them then, but Melanippe... she was always too proud. They trod forth, somehow convinced that they would be the new keepers of man. And it was man who decimated them." She looks down. "Or so I thought. For eventually their tracks ended and they could not be found anywhere in the world that my methods could seek them- for I looked for them, always hoping they would come back. Always hoping Melanippe would return... accept her punishment and her penance. And return to me-" Her voice trails off. It is a frightening sound: Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, her voice is tight, threatened by tears. "But their tale ended in the desert and the sand. Or so I thought. Their trail ended at the borders of a foreign land. Unremarkable, or so I thought." "And the king of that land is our guest."
Donna Troy	"The Dora Milaje," Troia says. "T'Challa spoke of a tribe of women, from whom they were founded. When I spoke of a combat tradition, refined over generations...."     She sees no need to finish the thought, and falls silent. She stays by Hippolyta, but her eyes go over to Diana, standing by another window, and she watches her sister lost in her own thoughts.     "Clotho's spindle turns in circles, after all," she says at last. "And Lachesis has seen fit to measure sufficient thread to wind back upon itself. Wakanda has more in common with Themyscira than we thought, because it has, or in recent history it /had/, Amazons. Perhaps this is how they come back."     "If Wakanda has some part of our wisdom already, it is all the more important that we stand beside them and let them see our wisdom in its purest form. And if this tribe of women still exists there, if it is not wholly subsumed into the order of the Dora Milaje, then... then things are complicated. But we cannot... Mother, given what you have said, I do not think it would be for the best if you make a return visit to Wakanda immediately. Let Diana be our first ambassador to their land rather than... someone who may already be known there."
Diana Prince	Diana just crosses one arm over her stomach as the other rises up to press fingertips to her chin. She stares out at the city, her attention still focused on them behind her though. She does eventually look back over her shoulder at the idea of her being the one to go to Wakanda first. "I would not even extend them an invite to come back to Themyscira." She says then.. Diana turns to face them once more, and starts to walk toward them. She shakes her head side to side. "They are not Themyscirans any longer. If this is what became of them, and Wakanda has integrated them in to their society. They, are, Wakandans now." She takes her eyes from Donna, and sweeps them to her mother. "I would happily represent our people to them, but... they made their choice, long ago. They clearly are where they wish to be now."
Hippolyta	"They did. All... but one." Hippolyta had briefly glanced at Diana as she approached them. Now, she looks back over the city again. "Melanippe thought that the Amazons would follow her if she had the future of the island- an heir- with her. If she had intended to leave, she had no reason to invade the palace." "She came to the nursery, while her Amazons fought the guard. Diverted. Distracted. And she ambushed Rhene there." She takes a deep, shuddering breath. "You had woken up in the middle of the night, Diana. Crying. You cried so much," she says softly. "In those early days, you slept peacefully, but this night you cried. Rhene sought to convince me that it was her duty to see to you- she was so proud of her role as nurse. The first, and only, on our island's history. But I could not keep away from your cries, and to avoid waking others, I took you with me into my garden, there to soothe you." Her expression darkens. "And while I was in the gardens, the attack began. And Rhene tried to keep Melanippe out of the nursery. And she paid for it with her life. Sweet, gentle, doe-eyed Rhene, who laughed the loudest of all at our comedies, who knew the names of every herb that ever bloomed under the sun, and who was Magala's most beloved." The Queen's hands clench, a tremor begins in them- ever so slowly at first, but soon it begins to shake her statuesque frame. Her voice, always so well-modulated and regal, polished in delivery and attitude by thousands of years of diplomacy, is suddenly no longer fully under her control, as a wound opens inside her. "When I returned with my Diana in my arms, Rhene lay on the nursery floor, her life stolen from her. And the cribs were empty." Cribs. Then Hippolyta's voice breaks, and it comes raw, bruised, barely strangling the sobs that threaten to burst from her. "Zeus gave me two daughters- two!" her hands clutch at the window sill, her knuckles turning white, as if it is the only thing she can hold on to, so as not to fall. She pivots to face her daughters, her hand still holding onto the window. The Queen is gone- there is only Hippolyta. The Hippolyta who could not afford herself to mourn, who had to pick up the pieces after family betrayed family, who had to reinforce the faith of the Amazons in the face of tragedy with Antiope by her side. Grief distorts Hippolyta's face, and tears roll down her cheeks as she half-speaks, half-sobs. "She took my Dione... your sister!"
Donna Troy	'Does your middle daughter share your soft heart, sister?' The words echo in Troia's mind, suddenly standing out bright and clear from the dimly-remembered fragments of a year-old dream, but everything else that echoes in her mind is confusion. She reaches a hand out for the hand of the woman who adopted her, the woman who has been her mother as long as memory, and everything feels broken.     Mother. Queen. In both roles she has always seemed to Troia to be unshakeable, yet here she is shaken. Troia finds herself torn between the urge to hug Hippolyta, to offer her comfort, and the feeling that it's /wrong/. That this reverses roles that had seemed to her as fixed as the great columns of the temple of Athena that stretch so high. Hippolyta is her mother. The one who offers /her/ comfort. The one who always has answers. The immortal Hippolyta, mortal.     Troia cannot help but share the anguish she sees on her mother's face. She feels the pain as keenly as any blade, but what truly hits her is the sense the universe has shifted. What was once fixed is forever changed, and she feels a sense of shattering loss. The very Earth has moved beneath her feet, and the woman who has traveled to other universes, returned from the Land of No Return, travelled through black holes and stood on impossible worlds for the first time in her life feels that there is no frame of reference any more. No stability. She doesn't know what to do.     Her fingers entwine Hippolyta's and she whispers "/Matera/...". Her eyes seek out Diana and she takes a half step, back rather than forwards, to give her sister space to come closer, resolving through the confusion that there is something here the two share but she does not. Diana and Dione. Not Troia.     Though she will not let go of her mother's hand, not just yet.
Diana Prince	If the bombshell of a aunt she never knew wasn't enough, the next one hits far harder. Diana flutters her eyelashes several times as she tilts her head to the side, and once more furrows her brow line. "My, what?" She asks then. A sister? That she could've grown up with? Why would this have been withheld from her for so long? Diana looks to Donna, her sister... the one she has loved since the moment she met her. The 'real' sister she has in this moment. Normally it would be hard to find a moment where Diana is not laser-focused on a conversation, to a point where she'd remember every word that everyone spoke, with that unmatched memory of hers. But in this moment? She's lost inside her own thoughts, and whatever Donna says to Hippolyta is just simply gone. "I... I can't." Diana says then, her voice laced with thick emotion. She uncrosses her arms from her stomach and starts to walk out of the room, pulling that baseball jersey off she wads it up and tosses it on to a chair beside the door as she makes to go back out to the palace grand stairway! It is too much for her.
Hippolyta	Hippolyta's hand holds on to Donna's, and the Queen does not go after Diana. In her grief, she understands if it is too much for Diana- it had been too much for her. She is still crying, but after the initial burst, the destructive wave, she has managed to reassert some control over herself. Brushing the tears furiously away with her free hand, she speaks in her bruised, broken voice. "I have three daughters now, Troia. Three. Nothing will change that. But until the King spoke... I thought Dione had perished along with Melanippe, too young to even know her true origins." She takes deep breaths, trying to bring the turmoil back to center. The tears don't want to stop, but she can try to tame what is there. It is too soon for reason, too soon for the consolations of philosophy to soothe the raw emotions of a mother robbed of her child. "But now you know. Now you know why I didn't want to let you leave. Why I didn't want Diana to leave. Why it was so /hard/ to let you both..." She closes her eyes, brushing a hand against her eyes, "Be with your sister, Troia- my Troia," she says, the second time almost sounding like a challenge- but who is she challenging? "She will have need of you soon, and she will have no desire to see me... for a time." Her voice breaks at the end of the sentence and she goes quiet, not daring to speak.