10569/TITANS: Another Bird Comes to Roost

TITANS: Another Bird Comes to Roost
Date of Scene:	29 December 2019
Location:	Lobby, Titans Tower
Synopsis:	Carrie accepts her invitation to the Titans, and Vorpal returns from extra dimensional shenanigans.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Robin (Wayne), Carrie Kelley, Beast Boy

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Stardust has posed:
    Carrie's last visit, Tim had walked her through the security - this time she was making her own way. The ferry reacted to the T-Com the same as it had to Tim's, ferrying her easily across the sound to Barker Island without any visible security checks or having to negotiate with an AI, as is the case for those without. Arriving on the island itself, there's no line of lights to guide the path to the tower this time though. Not that it's hard to figure out the way - the Tower is easily visible, dominating the island. There's a lot of trees and undergrowth in the way, though, and the light is dim.

    Her arrival had been noted by the Tower systems before she'd stepped foot on the ferry, and her progress was now being monitored on a display in the lobby. Stardust sits, legs-crossed and floating in the air, watching. She has a bowl of popcorn. "Did you switch on any of the traps or defenses?" she asks Damian. "Any additional tricks or tests? Or do you figure you know her well enough to not bother with any of that?"

    As Carrie passes a tree, a tiny hidden camera embedded in the trunk tracks her motion. A pair of doppler radars switch on, computers predict her forwards motion, and a turret mounted in another tree some way ahead whirs quietly to life, tracking her. An infra-red laser paints the ground at her feet.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian stood next to Colette, arms crossed in front of him and his hood raised, due to the openness of the island, he never stepped outside without being in uniform. "No, I vouch for her abilities." He lets that sink in, he's never done that for someone he's recruited before. "Matter of fact, even the least trained Bat is in the highest quarter percentile of combatants." And Carrie was not the least trained of their flock.

  He turns his head to look at Colette. "Or do you wish for a demonstration?" He asks, reaching to his left gauntlet, the holographic screen activating as he quickly pulls up the testing protocols, all is needed is his activation. "It is not too late to turn them on."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Finding the T-comm in the Bunker was quite a surprise to say the least. Moreso since whomever had left it (she had her suspicions) hadn't opted to give it to her directly. It only took a short while for Carrie to ensure things were buttoned up in her area of Gotham so that she could take the trip to investigate this apparent offer further.

It's Kestrel in her full suit that approaches the island. Even without the lit walkway like before she could follow the path easy enough. So she does, with her own hood up to obscure her face and the slight glow of the lenses on her mask that help to heighten her vision in low-light conditions. While they decide upstairs whether to test her or not, she's already scanning the area as she'd been warned at least once by Tim that the island was full of traps.

That little whirr of the turret raising earns a slight cock of her head though her pace doesn't slow, not completely. Her weight shifts to the balls of her feet though in preparation to dodge, run, or leap. Even the infrared laser on the ground is spotted via the HUD in her mask... It was the full suit she wore tonight with all it's technological components that had been crafted into it by Batman himself. The other modifications she'd made along the way were there as well.

It's the very reason she leaves the path with the next step: Her arm raises up to fire off a grapple line which zips her up in one smooth movement sending her swinging the rest of the way toward the entrance. At the very least it makes her progress there go far swifter than on foot.

Stardust has posed:
    Stardust thinks about it for a moment before giving Robin her answer. "Nah. I never really got these tests, anyway. I assume they are more about filtering out people who are so unserious they can't be bothered to even do it. I don't think that really applies here." She takes a handful of popcorn and munches it, offering the bowl to Damian. She nods her head in the direction of the monitor. "Look. She's grappeling through the trees. A kestrel ought to fly, not brachiate. Can we rename her 'Tarzan'?"

    The turret continues to track, but does not fire. Kestrel makes her way through the barrier of trees and breaks out into the clearing in front of the building. In the darkness two laser turrets and a missile launcher also track her, but tracking is all they are doing. The building is well-lit and the lights are on in the huge lobby ahead. Ten feet in front of the door, a small box is mounted on a pole with a push-button and a speaker built into it.

    "I never did one," Stardust says after her mouthful of popcorn is dealt with. "The T-Com test thing. Vorp gave me the number and suggested I come by, but instead I rang up for some backup when dealing with a minor alien invasion. Turns out Cassie and I were already friends but she hadn't quite got around to inviting me too... and Starfire. You know how she could be. She'd known me for seven seconds, so I was apparently her best friend too. Come to think of it, I don't recall actually ever agreeing to join. It was just kind of assumed I had."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     The defense measures are swiped off the hologram, which grew dark. Damian had been midway through a mouthful of popcorn as Colette suggests a change of name. He immediately holds up a hand. "Do not mess with the theme."

  "What the hell? I had to go through all that shit." Damian comments, watching as Kestrel approaches the lobby. "Well, at least you still have an opportunity to back out." He comments, readying his cape for a jump. "Kestrel knows the rules of the tower. Only certain Titans know my identity. And of course...she is the one who showed up when I needed to be away from Father."

  "Shall we?" He asks his compatriot, ready to make his decent to the ground floor.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Trees were not this Kestrel's natural habitat but she tries to make do. Enough so that by the time she reaches the doors she lands neatly on her feet, zipline behind her whipping back into place in her grapple gun. The doors are approached, and stepped through as the T-comm alerts it to her presence.

Rather than enter right away she pauses with hands resting on her hips to tilt her head back and stare up at the tower. Well now. She'd made it all this way, obviously observed somehow. The least she could do is give a moment to let them make an appearance.

Stardust has posed:
    "I like her," Stardust announces. "She wasn't taking any of my crap when I hard-assed her. I always appreciate that in a person. Shows they think instead of just reacting. Good attitude. Far as I'm concerned, if you think she's trained enough, she'll do. " She drops to the floor and walks over to the window to look down at Kestrel. "You wanna drop out the window behind her and see if she notices while I go greet her in the lobby?" she asks.

    Stardust does not await an answer. She's going down to the lobby either way, and strides towards the empty elevator shaft, popcorn still in hand. "I'm sure Moon Moon would have insisted on the T-Com test if he'd been there, but Cassie and Vorp just aren't that formal. I'd offer to run the T-Com test now, except I really can't be bothered," she offers as she steps into the empty shaft and plummets down to the lobby.

    The thump of Stardust's arrival on the ground floor can be faintly heard even outside the tower. A few moments later, the door to the tower slides open, Stardust standing in the doorway. She holds the bowl in her hand out to Kestrel. "Popcorn?"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "That is why I thought she would be a good fit with the Titans." Damian comments, though of course she didn't need an answer from Damian, she knew what he would say.

  Robin drops out of the window, descending the massive T-shaped tower and aiming to land gently. "She would pass it." Damian comments with certainty.

  The glide takes a little longer than Colette's descent, but he lands with the quietness he always had, it was instinct to him from his League training. His cape draped around him like Batman's does, hiding everything below his shoulders, seeming almost like a specter. He doesn't say anything yet, he is waiting for Kestrel to say something.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Faced with Stardust's arrival from the tubes, and the offer of popcorn, Kestrel flashes the familiar Titan a wry grin in response. It's now she does step forward to reach out for the proffered bowl with the smallest of shrugs as she accepts a few of the fluffy popped kernels in her gloved hand. "Thanks. I was wondering what was taking so long." Not really, but it was the sort of chatter one should expect from a Bat, right? Robin's arrival behind her doesn't get a glance. She doesn't need to--Surely he was there. Taking a stab in the dark she speaks just a hair louder so her voice carries back over her shoulder.

"I take it you're the one that left me that present, Robin?" He better be there. She was taking a chance on it. Half of guessing when she was being snuck up on by her compatriots was guess work. The other half was a slow growing skill only time and exposure to them could develop.

Stardust has posed:
"Well, I guess you're either here to sign up to this insane crazy dangerous nonsense," Stardust suggests, "Or you're here to tell Robin to keep his nose out of your business and stop trying to sign you up to insane crazy dangerous nonsense. Either way works for me. Come on in." She turns her back and walks back inside the lobby, munching popcorn, leaving the door open.

    The lobby is a large space, more suitable to a hotel lobby or office block than a building that houses a dozen people at best. The tower's entire population could get lost in one corner. There's a front desk, but it's unmanned. There are plenty of comfortable sofas scattered around, and Stardust drops into one not far away, part of a cluster of seats that makes for a good meeting area, as the lobby is otherwise pretty much empty. "Grab a seat. We've buzzed the others, if anyone else is around they should turn up. We can introduce you to the gang. How's Gotham keeping? Still not burned down yet?"

Beast Boy has posed:
"Crazy dangerous nonsense is what we do best, though," comes a voice from another part of the lobby. Not from outside, though. It's a certain green-skinned, green-haired, all-green-everything (yes, everything) Beast Boy, though Gar is keeping it casual today with his choice of attire: no costume, business casual shirt and slacks, good shoes. "New blood?" he asks, sizing the newcomer - and her costume - up.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     He had been half-smiling behind Carrie, by a couple yards, when she pipes up. Immediately his smile faded into a grimace. His fun had been ruined, he may as well have an anime scribble above his head. "Yes, I did. Now I'm not so sure on my invite." He comments, still grumping over the ruination of his surprise.

  He continues into the lobby, opting to stand though as people make their hellos and greetings. "Yes, this is one of my compatriots from Gotham." He comments, keeping it short and not so sweet. "I thought she would make a good addition to the team."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Oh thank goodness he actually was there," Kestrel murmurs quietly so that, hopefully, only Stardust hears her admit she had merely *guessed* to Robin's presence. Every now and then you had to keep the boys on their toes. Her grin broadens though at mention of joining this dangerous mess with a slight incline of her head as she follows further into the tower. A glance is cast over her shoulder at Robin with an apologetic shrug that leaves her hands spread wide open. "Hug?" She offers even though she knows he'll likely decline. At least in public.

When Gar pipes up she glances over toward him lifting a hand to nudge her hood back. No sense in having it on completely while inside, though she did still have that tell-tale domino mask with the colored eye peices like all the Bats seemed to wear. "Hey there," she greets simply with a little waggle of her fingers. "I'm Kestrel."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
There is the briefest of crackling sounds, and for a few seconds the air smells faintly of ozone, then it dissipates and nothing happens for quite a few seconds.

The tear in reality opens up just as any potential dramatic capital accrued from the crackling sound has been spent, so that its appearance comes across as a little anticlimactic. The light that emanates from it could be considered sunlight, if the light of the sun were ever salmon-colored. The figure silhouetted against the light is a familiar one, but his features aren't visible until after he steps through the opening and sets foot on the lobby floor.

Vorpal looks rather worse for wear- although his mane has always been rather unruly, right now he could easily pass for someone going to a Hair metal band audition... and his costume is torn in places, and smudged in others. As the rabbit hole closes behind him, the Cheshire cat looks around for a few seconds, and then turns to the assembled Titans in the lobby, almost as if surprised to see them there. "Oh... hey. Interrupting something, am I?" he asks, noticing there is A New Person in the lobby. He straightens up, hastily passing a hand across the unruly mane, as if anything short of a well-focused industrial-strength brush could make a dent.

Stardust has posed:
    "Hey Vorp," Stardust calls out with a wave, gesturing the cat over. "You look like you've been greeted by a particularly enthusiastic puppy of gargantuan proportions. Riots in Wonderland? Come and meet the newbie before she realizes what a terrible idea this is and flees. She's Kestrel. Or the first Kestrel, anyway. It's a new Bat-thing. Like Robins, only without the childhood trauma. Kinda trading off years of pre-pubescent combat training for a normal human development. An interesting experiment. She calls Batman on his bullshit, so that much seems to be working, at any rate."

    Introductions time! "Kestrel, this is Beast Boy," Stardust says, hand waving in the Green One's direction. "Or Gar. You probably recognize him. He's in movies and stuff as well as being a Titan. And this is Vorpal. He's a cat. And chaotic. A chaos cat. The swirly crackly rip in space thing is called a Rabbit Hole. It's one of the things he does. Rabbit holes, and being random. That's his other super-power. Magically random. The rule is: when you have eliminated the possible, whatever remains, however absurd, must be Vorpal."

Beast Boy has posed:
"I'm Beast Boy, like she said, and I like the way that costume makes your--" Gar is cut off right before he says something more embarassing than usual, for he's feeling the telltale signs of a rabbit hole..only no Vorpal until, yep, there he is. And, the way he's looking is not all that great.

Whatever Gar was about to say about Kestrel's..something..is left behind for now as he's taking quick steps over toward the returned Titan instead. "Vorpal? Where have you been? And what happened? Were you lighting your farts on fire again?" No, of course nobody does that. Just a little humor, right? To hide the concerned expression?

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Since it seems like everything is going peachy with the Titans and Kestrel, Robin keeps you the back. He of course refused the hug, he was in front of his peers. This Robin was different than the one in Gotham, okay, not that much different. But he was the leader here, which means he was more business forward.

  Damian also had a little concern when it came to his teammates, but was glad Vorpal had shown again. Usually if there was trouble there would have been some craziness sent their way which would set off that particular alarm.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"I don't think we've quite worked out yet if this is going to be a legacy name or not," Kestrel remarks when Stardust starts to go on about being the first Kestrel. That was a good point to bring up though. One she'd have to think about at another time, when she wasn't meeting new teammates. One of whom stumbles out of a portal looking as if he'd taken on a wood chipper in hand to hand combat.

"Nice to meet you, Beast Boy. You okay?" The latter is offered toward Vorpal as she takes a step forward intending to see to him... it was out of habit, really. So often did she fall into the role of making sure her comrades in Gotham got the treatment they needed that it's automatic anymore. She does catch herself before going too far, hesitating with a light clearing of her throat. "We can cut introductions short if you need to get patched up. That's far more important."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Vorpal waves the concern aside quickly, trying to settle his hair back in place and settles for the windblown look instead. As if he had a choice. "I've just spent two weeks wandering over goodness-knows-what dimension because something took over my Rabbit Hole after... it's a long story." He waves it aside, and then looks at Gar. "You're the only one who does that, Gar. It's the reason why your room has a sprinkler system."

Not true, but the line was there to be used. He glances at the newcomer and huhs, "Kestrel, then? Nice to meet you. About time somebody called Dark Tall and Broody out..." he peers over and looks at Robin, who had kept mum, "Now if you could do that with Bat two point oh..."

Stardust has posed:
"Took over your Rabbit Hole?" Stardust asks Vorpal, one eyebrow raising high. "Did you regain control, or did it just get bored of you and send you home? I'd offer to beat it into submission for you, but honestly punching a hole doesn't make a whole lot of sense." A thoughtful look passes briefly across her face. "Unless you're a hole punch. You know, like they use for punching holes in belts. Um. You should probably show that to Raven. Or Zach, if Raven's being too random again. So...."

    Stardust's head turns slowly to Kestrel. "I mean you pretty much know what we're about. You wanna join, anyway? We have a stringent entrance test, but Robin switched it off, so welcome aboard."

Beast Boy has posed:
Beast Boy points out, "They let me back in after I was being a fla...well, flakier than usual." Some of the concern shown toward Vorpal abates when the retort is made, proving the feline must not be /that/ bad off, and he doesn't bother trying to deny it either. "Whatever. I was worried. Are you sure everything is okay?"

Kestrel is given a quick, apologetic look. "Sorry, this is kind of the usual for us around here. You'll get used to it, or you won't."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian's eyebrows were an exact 45 degree angle to his eyes, his brow furrowed. "I will stab you as you sleep, Vorpal. I'm always up for round two, the Red X suit is right where I left it." The scariest part of the whole mess was that he was serious, he's always down for a good fight.

  Anyway, it was time for a little explanation. "There's a crime lab on the grounds, the submarine is in the sublevels, and the Jet...is still out of order." He adds in, looking to Colette. "I have parts on order."

  "That will be up and running again soon."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Kestrel gives a simple nod at the mention of the happenings around here. "Hardly anything I'm not used to given who I work with," she points out with a wry grin. Her attention swings breifly to Robin when he gives the run-down of the base... and the situation with the jet which earns an arched eyebrow. "Okay. Well then..." Looking between them all she flashes a grin. "Good to meet you all. I'm going to go wander and familiarize myself with the place just a bit before heading back to Gotham. I've still got duties there, as well. But glad to be here."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Wander on, them, brave soldier. And let me tell you this: Weirdness has its recompense. For every ounce of weird we experience, you get pizza." The Cheshire gives Gar a look and sighs, "... Okay, maybe I -am- sore, bruised and cut, but in the general picture I am fine, Gar. Not that I won't say no to you spoiling me and showing me you missed me..." he winks.

Vorpal gives Robin a raised eyebrow, "Be very careful, Master Robin. Remember that you still owe me a painting, and I get to choose the subject thereof. I can make you regret it."

"Stardust, don't worry about punching holes. I'm famished, it's been two days since I've had a proper meal, and zero days since I haven't had a meal that didn't look like a neon nightmare. Weirdness has been delivered, so I now vote for pizza. All those in favor say 'aye.'"

Beast Boy has posed:
Beast Boy makes a face. "Food first, then spoiling you and all that," Gar confirms, offering, at least, a supportive hand or side of the body in case Vorpal is in need of it. He looks between Stardust, Robin, and Kestrel with one of those 'see what I have to put up with?' expressions, but it isn't as though he's never been on the other side of being a troublemaker. "I'm used to weird, but I still dunno if I'll ever get used to /Vorpal/ weird."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Your T-Com will allow you to access the points you need to get into." Yes, he set her T-com for full access, half the stuff she has already seen.

  "I swear, I'm just going to give you a Jackson Pollock look-alike with a purple streak that represents you." Yes, Damian would find that funny. "Have them send that salad I like." Yes, salad, the pizza place knows the one, a cornucopia of veggies and grilled chicken, with a delicious dressing. Someone around here has to have vegetables.

  "And for that matter, I'm NOT painting your penis onto a canvas with MY signature on it!" Yeah, that thought just occurred to him.

Stardust has posed:
    "And is it gonna be spaceworthy, finally?" Stardust asks Damian with interest. "The sub works, by the way. I took it for a test drive. Not far, just about the bay a little. It's fun, I don't know why we don't use it more often. That dockside warehouse we attacked a few weeks back, for example. Could have snuck up on them in the sub. There's like... emergency diving suits you guys can wear if you're worried I'm gonna crash it at ten fathoms deep. Though I'm sure Gar isn't scared of a little water, at least."

    Kestrel's exit to go explore garners a wave and a faint grin from Stardust. When Kestrel's safely in the elevator and rising, she turns back from watching the latest recruit's exit and says "I'm kinda regretting I showed her the Danger Room already. It would be fun to set up something really weird in there, let her find it and then blame it on Vorpal. Who incidentally sneakily avoided answering my question about regaining control of the Rabbit Holes. I notice when he does things like that. Personally I think Chinese takeout ought to be our thing instead of pizza. I know at least most of the Robins are with me here on taste grounds, but I think we're still just about outvoted so I can go with pizza." She pulls out her phone and starts tapping. "Regular order. Should I ask them to deliver, or will you be rabbit holing to the store, Vorp?"