capeandcowllogs | Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win

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Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win

WHO: Roxanne and well-wishers (plus one really angry alien)
WHERE: The Ritchi House
WHEN: December 30th, Friday Morning - January 6th, Friday.
WARNINGS: Should be none.
SUMMARY: Roxanne's busted up. Come visit.
FORMAT: Looooooooooog (Just leave a note on what day you're visiting in the subject line!)

Roxanne sure as hell wasn't going anywhere after her encounter with Hal. So she was all cozied up at home, with some really good post-surgery painkillers, a brain bot to warm her feet, and a whole week of not leaving the house for pretty much any reason at all. But she'd take visitors. Maybe. If you weren't Hal.

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"The last one. We were a team of teens with a rotating roster, so I guess it was a bit like a frat house, at times." Donna smiles fondly, as she talks. As far as she's concerned, her life was never better than those golden years with the Titans.

She nods at Roxanne, thoughtful for a moment. "College was maybe the only normal part of my life--or as normal as college gets. So I guess we did things in reverse."

"I was a pretty good kid till college. Then I went a little nuts with the freedom, poor like choices," she says, giving her a smile of her own.

But what's this? Super-details? Her interest, it's piqued. "A whole team? We had just the two and that was a pretty wild -- and sometimes costly -- ride for the city."

"Well, we were actually from all over. I lived in New York and went to NYU, another friend of mine was from Gotham, and everyone else was from even further off. Our house doubled as our HQ, and we worked out of it. When we weren't working, though, it did feel like one big party."

"I didn't leave Metro City at all, almost all of my life, except to go to school. Then I just went a city over," she replied. "Met Metro Man while I was in college, and never looked back, really. I had too much going on to leave."

Besides, Megamind never would have let her, once she became a part of the game.

"Life has a way of sneaking up on us like that, I guess." Donna nods again, smiling. She pauses, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I think I told you before, but I was doing the superhero thing since I was thirteen--trying to live up to my sister. A lot of my friends were in similar situations--we were the juniors, the kids, the sidekicks. So we had that tying us together."

Roxanne nods once, remembering. "All of you had mentors, then? I wish someone had taken our boys in hand and... given then options."

But maybe it wouldn't have been avoidable. Boyhood rivalry has this way of outlasting...everything.

"The first few of us, yes. After that, it was just teen heroes, and we kept growing. Sort of mentored each other, I guess you could say." The Titans were her family, in some ways more than Diana was. It was strange to have to explain them, too; they'd been a staple of her world since she was a teenage herself.

"Kids picking up kids?" Sounds familiar to the CPS situation here and that 'awesome base' collection of kids. But she didn't want to drag work into this-- she dragged work into everything.

"Our boys started young, and it was-- just them. Metro Man had his family, and Megamind had Minion, but nobody-- taught them. They just-- fell into things. It was the backdrop, growing up. They're a few years older than me... So when I was going through grade school they were starting to create minor disasters."

She suppresses a wry bit of laughter. "Didn't say minor for long, though. I'm guessing there are more people like you in your world then there was in mine. Whole teams of heroes. I mean, there's the Doom Syndicate and some roving villains like the Puzzler, but-- nothing like what I've seen out of Gotham or other places. You guys have whole -- pantheons of power, I guess."

"Sometimes it's easier for kids to deal with kids than adults," Donna explains. She's sure Roxanne already know this, but it was essentially what the Titans became. Even after she and her generation had graduated from being "Teens," they were still the intermediaries between younger heroes and the Justice League.

She nods, again. "I think it build on itself, to be honest. One hero starts out, and inspires more--and inspires villains. So eventually the world is full of them."

"The scale's just a little tipped in your world. There are more-- fantastic people. It's weird to think about it; even having been altered and empowered by the Porter, I -- have a hard time not looking at the rest of you like demigods. Even knowing Metro Man as well as I did..."

Or maybe because of it; he was always larger than life, from day one.

"I guess we got lucky. The thing between Megamind and Metro Man was pretty all consuming for them both."

"I can imagine. It's not an easy life." Donna nods, sympathetically. She's seen cities been torn apart and worlds shattered by every manner of hero and villain, but that didn't give every individual story less weight.

"When I told Calendar Man at that Iceberg party that I'd be interested in seeing the stories of Gotham," Roxanne says, recalling her encounter with Julian Day, "he looked at me like I was insane, and told me, essentially, that it was crazy talk."

Her expression turns wry. "And he's currently in an Asylum. That sort of colors it, doesn't it?"

"Considering Gotham? It absolutely does."

She tries to think of a city that would be comparable-- that unless you're born within it, that you simply shouldn't go there... and if you were born there, you should think about getting out.

"It's got a downright mythical quality," she muses. "Like crossing over into Taterus."

"I know a few people who'd argue Gotham is worse than Hades." There's a small, private smile there; the Olympians are, after all, a topic very close to home.

"I bet there are. Hell on earth in it's own way. But still, you don't get the best stories without a little blood, sweat and tears," Roxanne says, thoughtful.

"You're not a Gothamite, though?" she says, tilting her head. "But it's well known enough that you're aware of that sort the place."

"Nah, I went to school in New York. Home was a bit further off. MY best friend's from Gotham, though, so we were in and out of the city a lot."

Further off.

"Foreign country further, alien further? Aliens were-- ah, sort of our heroic bread and butter at home," he adds, considering. It wouldn't surprise here-- where Megamind was a few steps away from human, Metro Man was human perfection delivered by space-mail. Donna she could see fitting into that latter category.

"Well, we have our fair share of aliens--another of my best friends is one, actually, but I'm from a place called Themyscira, which is very much on earth. It's... the island of the Amazons."

"...huh."

Well, that put Donna in a new light. Amazons.

"Sounds like a wildly varied bunch. And I thought going to college with some out-of-staters was crazy. Aliens, Amazons, Gothamites-- it sounds like you have a-- really interesting extended family in your team."

"Family is definitely the word for it." There's no masking the affection on Donna's face, now. While she's as grateful as anything to have Dick around in the city, it doesn't mean she doesn't miss the others, terribly.

Family that wasn't here in the City; she knew that unspoken loss. She had it herself-- Megamind came and went, Wayne wasn't here, and she knew Megamind missed Minion.

"That's really amazing. I'm glad you guys had so much going for you." Not a lot of them did; Wayne did alright, but Megamind sure hadn't.

"They're probably the luckiest thing about my life." This isn't said in a mopey way, as though she had no other luck, but rather with a bit of reverence. Then she pauses and laughs airily. "But I feel like I'm boring you with stories of my youth, by now."

"Believe it or not, I'd rather hear your story then get into my own. But isn't that always the way?" Even if one knows their story is pretty interesting, they know it's their story-- it's someone else's they don't know that grabs and demands their attention.