3963/Training Day

Training Day
Date of Scene:	25 February 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Hacking a Playstation into a danger room. Nothing could go wrong. Nothing.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Raven, Raijin

---

Stardust has posed:
The Titans are blessed with a lovely training facility. A huge room fills an entire floor of the tower, with heavily reinforced walls. Force field and holographic projectors tie together to simulate virtually any environment - and threat - that might be needed for training purposes. Normally the program is set to ninjas, because Damian. Damian loves fighting ninjas. His mountaintop ninja battle scenario is so frequently used that variants fill five of the six "recently used scenarios" slots.

However it can, in theory, simulate pretty much anything, in glorious, immersive 3D. Which is why Colette logic says this thing needs to be connected to a Playstation. She's been at it for most of the day, and finally figured out which cable plugs into which slot. Which is why, suddenly, the tower is filled with the sounds of car horns blaring, police sirens, and loud music. Grand Theft Auto's Los Santos has come to Titans Tower.

Colette stands in the middle of a busy street, cars swerving to avoid her. She looks around wearing a stupid grin, and fistpumps. "Yesss... at last!"

Raven has posed:
    Upstairs, Raven is enjoying the solitude of her room. The echoing quiet, the sensation of an uneasy silence that even something so minor as a pindrop could disrupt it only in that as serenity moves towards completion, it also moves towards fragility. Without even a clock's ticking, this silence is beyond utterly complete in every way.

    Her pages are turned with the power of the mind, so as not to fuss with scraping paper. The walls of every Titan's room are thick enough that the noises her compatriots make are unlikely to reach her, even if they are raucous. Were Raven not so incredibly, atrociously aware of her state of being at all times, she might even consider the perfection of this particular day to be some ethereal dream. A wonderful impossibility normally disrupted by a young green fellow and his half-robot accomplice. The kind of day that never happens, yet she is enjoying it all the same.

    HONK. CLANG. OTHER DISTRESSED CAR NOISES.

    The level of disdain that arises is not particularly proportional to the nature of the disturbance. The noise of her shutting the book is drowned out in the noise of her teleportation and the sound of Colette's game. Her arrival in the Danger Room followed by a powerful statement.

    "Victor. Garfield. /Why?/"

Raijin has posed:
Rayner was just chilling in his 'guest room' when he turns his head to the sounds of Freakin' grand theft auto on high jam in the tower! "Oh come on....I was about to nap..." he groans as he sits up. He was just wearing a black asymetrical jacket with black jeans and combat boots. New costume? unlikely, buti t was still stylish! Standing up and rubbing at his eyes, in an instant, it seems he's in the danger room, having used his measure of super speed to get there as if in the blink of an eye...though a lightning trail is behind him, but harmless.

"What...the.." SO MANY NOISES!! he looks around then, a sigh as he sees Colette and the power of 3d gaming. He sighs a moment, knowing full well this is what happens when Cyborg and Beast Boy get to have a room that's so powerful in technology to themselves. "....yep." he responds to Raven, after all, he did appear right next to her.

"So!..."

he starts....

"When do I get a turn?" he grins then, though it's more challenging than anything."

Stardust has posed:
"Victor Garfield?" Colette repeats curiously. "Is that like Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?" Her brow creases with thought. "Oh, I get it. Vee Gee. Very good. You're impressed by the awesomeness of this all. I can't say I blame you, Rae-rae." She flashes Raven a grin as she says this, so she probably doesn't believe her own interpretation, but she's gonna stick to it.

Horns honk loudly at Colette, and now Raven and Rayner, who's position in the middle of the road is beginning to cause serious tailbacks. Almost in time to the honking of horns, the soundtrack changes to a thumping drum n' bass number. It's all getting louder and louder.

"We don't need to take turns, Rainman!" Colette yells, to be heard. "It's multi-player. I'm not sure how well it's gonna work, though. I mean I dunno if the game will interface properly with the simulator's database. It might not recognize our powers. In fact there's a good chance the whole thing will crash horribly, explode, and burn down the Tower at any moment." She's probably joking. Probably. Unfortunately the calm lack of concern with which she says this is pretty characteristic for her, and she'd probably say it exactly the same way if she meant it.

Raven has posed:
    "Colette?" Raven asks, after a moment, her brow clearly raising- her hood momentarily down considering that she'd come here from reading rather than literally anything else. "I expected better." Scathing! Whether she expected a better excuse, or whether she expected more from Colette than turning the very expensive, difficult to create and replace, likely containing various experimental technologies, danger room into a... Very heavily graduated Oculus Rift.

    A car honks at Raven, but she ignores it. It's a construct of the simulation, not a real person. "Then... If this is all very horribly dangerous," she states, "Shouldn't we have... Not? Should we have messed with things that we do not fully understand?"

Raijin has posed:
Rayner seems to smile big and wide. "Sweeeet." and he walks up to Colette, hands in his pockets as he looks around. "...never been in an Oculus before, but I'm guessing that this absolutely thrashes that..." The Rainman, as his fellow Titans have taken to calling him (mainly colette), seems absolutely stoked...then immediately bummed by Raven's more negativity towards this, though the questions she possesses is pretty good.

Either way, Raijin stays casual, looking around. "....(sigh) she has a point, Colette. While this could be fun, we need to focus on serious questions like that." a small silence then. "...like who's gonna get five stars first." two peas in a pod....

Stardust has posed:
"Hey, give me time," Colette replies defensively to Raven. "I'll get the the powers thing working eventually. Gotta import the 3D-data into the computer and define properties for the mobile elements. This is the first step." Apparently Colette has chosen to interpret Raven's admonition as a complaint that she hasn't got the system fully functioning yet.

Colette steps out in front of a car. There's a loud BANG as it hits her, but she doesn't move and the car keeps on driving, passing ghost-like straight through her body. There's a secondary crash behind Colette as a fire hydrant bursts open, apparently randomly. Colette turns, blinking. "Huh. What... oh, I get it. It thinks I got knocked into the hydrant." She grins, and gives Raven a shrug. "See, not dangerous. I mean apart from the whole exploding and burning down the tower thing."

Colette turns to Rayner, looking for support. He's surely going to be stoked by this, right? Right. But he's being all adult too. Dammit, Rayner! "But... but come on, isn't messing with things that we do not fully understand kinda... our job? If we try to fully understand stuff first, we'd never get anything done. Besides, look... we know what this thing does. It creates hologram baddies we can punch. That's all. It's not going to suddenly try to take over the world just because the holograms we're punching started off in a game..." she arches an eyebrow at Raven, obviously deciding she's the one who's going to be harder to persuade. "Look. It's a good idea. 'Cos right now this system is limited. Suppose one day we have to fight something that isn't mountain ninjas? The threat and environments library just increased like a thousandfold. That's gotta be good, right?" A grin breaks out over her face. "Besides, FUN. Though I have no idea what happens if we try driving a car. The simulator isn't really designed for long distance travel."

A pedestrian attempting to cross the road walks blindly into Colette, bounces off her, then tries again and walks blindly into Rayner. He swings a punch at Rayner, and then turns and runs away. "Hey, watch it!" Colette calls after the hologram character.

Raven has posed:
    Raven floats there for a few moments. There is a scornful silence from her that borders on the soulcrushing, before Raven offers this resigned sigh. "That is the actual thing that I am worried about. You know, the tower burning down. That whole... Pickle. I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures." she states, before enacting the only protocol she knows that might call an end to this particular silliness.

    Sophie's Choice.

    A phone seems to slip out of her pocket, levitating on a cradle of black energy, it moves near to her ear, and a few moments later, she begins to speak. "Yes, the usual order. Five. The mustard protocol is not in effect. The usual card. Leave them in the foyer." Then, after a moment, she hangs up. "Now you will have to choose. Pizza, or dangerous flirtation with technology you don't understand." Raven figures this is checkmate.

Raijin has posed:
Rayner shrugs at Colette "What?! I did totally want to get the five stars!!" he tells her then, rubbing the back of his neck. "Tough crowd...." he sighs a moment. Though as she steps in front of a car only for that ungodly sound to go, he winces...but then he opens his eyes to see Colette is completely fine and that car totally went through her. "Yeah....that would have looked extremely painful." he says fairly matter-of-factly.

Though he seems to smile a moment. "Hey, hey...I'm on your side here, pathfinder." yes, he's struggling coming up with a nickname for her that's actually -good- but he's looking around. "I mean, worse case scenario is that we break the Tower." he looks then as a car tries driving through him only for a similar effect to happen to him that happened to Colette. it just goes through him, but game damage still happens, so Rayner just kinda shrugs. "Huh, cool."

Then he looks to Raven...

SCARY!

Raven starts to be the only adult -here- as she starts giving them the usual. Then? she gets a phonecall. "Oh yay, pizza....and shit." he says then. "I'm torn. Colette! be a deal brea-" he's swung at! He barely dodges out of the way in time because he wasn't prepared for it,. "Hey!"

Stardust has posed:
Colette gives Raven a "Hmph!", and turns her back on her, arms folded. "The whole tower burning down thing isn't gonna happen. Rayner. We are not going to break the tower just by plugging in a game. I just connected one computer into another. Robin's doing that kind of thing all the time. At worst the Playstation will catch fire. Pretty confident I can handle a burning console. You're just jealous that you didn't think of it first."

She remains doggedly silent, pretending to sulk, as Raven makes the phone call. As it becomes clear what Raven is doing, Colette's eyes twitch slightly, then narrow. When the call is over, she lets out a slow, melodramatic sigh, and turns a mournful stare on Raven. "You win this round. Well played, Raven. Well played. However..." she breaks suddenly into a grin. "Even if you shadowy-zap over there to pick them up, we still have ten minutes while they cook. YAAAAAAH!"

The sudden battle cry accompanies Colette launching herself up into the air, then dive-bombing the pedestrian who just took a swing at Rayner. Her policy is to defend your team-mates, even against holographic simulations that are programmed not to use enough force to cause acual injury. She punches the pedestrian hard but the game isn't programmed to take her strength into account, so the guy doesn't go down straight away. She closes in on him, grabs him, launches up ten feet then hurls him down into a crowd of pedestrians. In moments a massive street brawl has erupted and at least one of the pedestrians has pulled out a gun and is vainly shooting at Colette.

"I forgot how aggressive random pedestrians can be in this game," says Colette, turning to Rayner. A bullet hits her in the head, messing her hair up a bit but otherwise not bothering her.

Raijin has posed:
Rayner still looks at Colette in a kind of defeated manner. "Oh come on...." he lowers his head then, rubbing the back of his neck. "Okay, okay, okay! The Tower won't burn down!" he says. She wins! Leave him beeeeee ;_;

Though Rayner was still attempting to talk some minor sense into Colette. "Um...I think this encourages danger of civilians much!" Given, a slur of bullets start to hit him from the lucky shots that touch his skin, but they just kinda bounce off. Because Oculus and health bars, aaaaaaand because heavy resistance against bullets. He sighs a moment then, speed-rushing through that crowd of people to throw one at a car, punch another into the ground, and slap another, because they slapped him!

Man....he forgot how much he liked playing Grand Theft Auto. Isn't there a fifth one? Huh, he hasn't paid attention to gaming in quite some time.

Either way, he looks to Raven. HEY...TEN MINUTES BABBBBYYYYYYY. Might as well have fun, right?

So what does he do? He keeps going! Helping Colette double team this way-more-aggressive-than-usual crowd.

Video games. Usual day at the Tower.

Stardust has posed:
"They aren't civilians, they're holograms!" Colette reasons. "It's perfectly acceptable to beat the tar out of holograms, whatever they represent." Colette dives into the deepest, most confused part of the melee, fists flying left and right. After the crowd has cleared a bit, she fights her way out again. "Okay, thinking about it you may have a point. But I'm not recommending actually using GTA as a training prog... oh, wait, I'll demonstrate."

Colette steps over to the control pad and jabs a few buttons. She quickly gets a couple of Damian's ninjas to spawn in the middle of the Los Santos street. The two ninjas glance at each other, then simultaneously draw their swords and dive into the attack. One goes for Colette, who catches the sword with her hand and slams a fist into the ninja, causing it to decompose into its component pixels and vanish. The other ninja leaps, sword flashing, at Rayner.

"So, Rae," Colette asks, a holographic policeman held in a headlock as she casually punches him. "Think those pizzas will be ready yet?"

Raven has posed:
    Raven has been brooding silently ever since she won the war- but not the battle- against Colette. She hasn't been aggressively doing anything, but her looming, Disappointed-In-You presence just sort of lingers there for a while. Around her, shots are fired and collide with an unseen barrier- or, rather a barrier that is unseen only until it is struck by one of the hardlight constructs that constitutes a bullet. It's a basic wizardry thing- if the high level, basicaly inhuman sorceror types weren't able to defend themselves from bullets, it'd be... Just plain disappointing.

    "Yeah, probably." she states, this half-dejected tone of voice echoing out thanks to the fact that she's, well, still in this simulation.

Stardust has posed:
"Simulation off!"

Colette's voice echoes through the room, and instantly the hologram freezes. The remaining ninja freezes in mid-air, sword just inches from Rayner The light level in the room starts to drop as the virtual world, and the virtual players, slowly dim.

Colette turns to Raven, frowning a little. "Hey... Rae? C'mon. This isn't a bad thing. Okay, so maybe GTA isn't your kind of game, but there's gotta be some goth games out there you'd love being able to import, right?" The frown turns into a grin, but Raven's empathic senses can't help noticing that behind the smirking barbs there's a hint of... concern? Colette actually wants Raven to be happy about this, not half dejected. "You wait and see, Rae Rae. Once I've imported a bunch of environment and bad guys from games, you'll see the use in this. I promise." Her grin turns into a smile, and she gives a light shrug then says "Okay, okay. No more games for today, I promise."

All around, the holographic world fades into darkness. If someone was watching carefully, they might be slightly puzzled that one of the cops that was watching from behind his car a way up the street seems to fade a little more slowly than the rest of the world, but it's fractional. He lasts perhaps a second or two longer than the rest, no more.

If someone was watching *very* carefully, they might just notice that for the briefest moment before he finally disappears, the cops eyes glow a dull red in the darkness.

If that person watching very carefully had particularly sharp vision, they might think for a moment that the cop had two pairs of eyes, one above the other. But that would probably be nothing more than a glitch in the image de-rendering routines.

Right?

The lights come on, and the room is back to normal. Plain if slightly damaged walls studded with projector equipent, and a control console. Colette stretches her arms out and flexes her fingers. "C'mon guys, let's go get that pizza. All this technology makes me hungry."

Raven has posed:
    Truth be told, raising Raven's spirits is an almost physically impossible thing. She notes the way that Colette feels, though, and the formulation of her response is... Delayed. She is considering the other woman's feelings, and that much shows. "It is not catastrophic, but it's... A very good idea to get a handle on the scope and nature of what you're messing with, before attaching a foreign device to it." Then, a pause. Part of her understands that she's not really being nice.

    "But if you do, I'm sure it'd be really.... Cool. Even if I don't play video games."

Raijin has posed:
Rayner's just chillin' like a villain and then a Ninja flies at him! Though he does seem much more comfy with this thun, shoulder nudging Colette playfully. "Thanks Colette. Much better." he winks at her before he starts casually dodging those ninja strikes...not that the ninjas weren't fast and more than efficient, but Rayner was -MUCH- faster! until eventually, he strikes the blade with the edge of his hand at the perfect spot to shatter the sword into pixels, then proceed to smack the ninja into pixels.

Because why not?

But he notices Raven being unhappy, and he looks to Colette, happy that Colette yielded if only that Raven can kinda-sorta-maybe half-smirk? Whatever her happy face is. Alas, he walks with Colette though he noticed the slightest hint of red in those eyes. "Huh...must be a glitch." he says softly, before his eyes are on those two ladies. "Well, lets snag that pizza."