4451/Faith and Silence

Faith and Silence
Date of Scene:	15 May 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Rayner seeks clarity from Colette, and ends up even more confused.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Raijin

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Stardust has posed:
Colette is often not very easy to find. Unless she's in the Tower, when she tends to be very easy to find lately. It's actually pretty rare to find her anywhere in the tower apart from the Danger Room. Presumably this is because of her scheme to connect a Playstation to the holoprojectors, although what you find when you go in there doesn't always bear that out.

For example quite often she appears to be training, though her training methods appear to be so off the wall lately that it's hard to know if it actually counts as training. Only a few days ago she was hovering inside a glowing blue semi-transparent sphere and when Rayner asked her what she was doing, she explained that she was training to fly at top speed while staying very still, and that it required her utmost concentration.

Today her activity is perhaps a little less esoteric, though equally hard to interpret. She's moving glowing blue semi-transparent blocks around the room, like she's playing some kind of impossible monochrome Tetris, or ultra-minimalist Minecraft. However it's not an unreasonable guess that she's setting up the force fields to create the physical layout for some scenario design. Most people would probably have started with the visuals and then added the physics simulation, but for Colette to be doing that backwards is a pretty small departure from norms for her.

Raijin has posed:
Rayner had a feeling he'd find Colette here. Since he doesn't know her last name, he has no idea where she would go if she were ever -not- in the tower. Of course, she knows his life, and she knows his last name. Vasusena. But...one of those things will be hopefully remedied as she'll find Rayner leaning against one of the doorways edged, watching as she trained. Rayner was in his superhero gear, as per the usual when he was at Titans Tower.

At least her training wasn't -exactly- weird. But it looked pretty cool. He does smile as he approaches her, calling out to the young woman. "Letty! Have a minute?" he says with a light smile. His limp is gone, which means he's fuly healed! yay!

But now onto more important things...

Stardust has posed:
Colette looks up from the console, gives him a nod and then quickly runs her fingers over the controls, causing the blue blocks to start shifting around the room. They open up a corridor leading from the doorway to the center of the room, while other blocks move out to the edges, leaving a wide open space there. A couple more flourishes over the controls and a half dozen smallish blue blocks fly into the middle. One more flourish and the block walls part for her too, making a second corridor between the control console and the clearing in the middle.

Colette steps out from behind the console and walks down her corridor into the cleared space in the middle. She sits down on one of the half dozen smaller blocks, and waits for Rayner to join her. "What's up, Rainy? Anything I can do for you?"

Raijin has posed:
Rayner offers a small smile to her as she shows that she's more than willing to talk, and with that in mind, in comes Rayner fully as he takes a seat next to her. "Not a whole lot, though...you know, a few things ran through my mind in my fight with Red X. Would you like to know which one was at the forefront of it all?" He gives pause so that Colette and really think about it, and he looks forward.

"The fact that I never asked you what your last name was." He looks at her and he cannot help but smile. "So...can I know?" he asks her curiously. Of course, this is just a light question before some of the real things he came to talk about, but this was as good an opener as any.

Stardust has posed:
Colette often raises an eyebrow to express some kind of sardonic disbelief. Kind of an eyebrow-shrug, or eyebrow-smirk. The more incredulous she's being, the more she raises an eyebrow. It's probably a French thing.

In response to Rayner's question, she raises both eyebrows. She must be genuinely surprised. "My... last name? I don't... I mean I suppose so but..." she looks down at the floor then back up at Rayner. "You know, to be honest I've avoided telling people that. It reveals who I am. And that means who my family is. But most of all..." she sighs and folds her hands in her lap. "Well I guess it kind of makes it real. I mean all of this. And I'm not sure it is. I mean real for me." Her shoulders shrug a little. "It's kind of easy... you know, with the codenames... to just switch it off. When I'm not Stardust, I can be me again. Go back to the real world. Maybe that's just like a superstition, I'm not sure. But I want to keep that door open, do you understand? Maybe one day I don't want to be Stardust any more. Just Colette."

Raijin has posed:
She has Rayner's full attention, though as she speaks about her hesitance about telling him her last name, He seems to eventually nod softly. "I understand, Colette...I was very hesistant to tell others my last name...as I never wanted anyone to be able to trace me back. But...I found that I trust the Titans a great deal. But...I am not you, and you are not me." he takes a breath. "You don't have the tell me...I simply care enough about you that I wished to know." he moves his hand to rest on hers for a brief moment, before removing it to rest on his knee.

Stardust has posed:
Colette looks up at the ceiling, then down at the floor again. "Actually Rainy, I do trust you. More than... well, I'm not big on trusting the Titans right now. But I do trust you. It's not really that." She lets out a sigh then turns her head sideways to look up at him. "I don't know how you reacted when you first found you had powers, but somehow I think that it must have felt to you like it fit, you know? I mean, all of you really. If you look at the Titans, okay there are people like Robin and Starfire, who basically were born into this. But for those of us who weren't, it's almost like a wish fulfilment thing, isn't it? One day you wake up with all these powers and it is a dream come true. You can do so much more than you used to be able to. But look at you. Or Breath. Or Cy. It's almost as if you'd been training for it before it happened. Breathy learned to fight because of being bullied, and now she's a superhero. Cy... a few weeks ago he was telling us how much he wishes he could do the kind of things we can do, and now he can. Vorp... well that's different, but you get the sense that he is living the dream. If he hadn't been possessed by some kind of chaos being, he'd be one of those guys editing four pages on the capewatch wiki before breakfast. But this... being Stardust, being a Titan. It's not my dream, Rainy. I have other dreams. I don't want to..." she breaks off suddenly, leaning back in her seat. "Um. I guess I worry that if I give in too much to this, then I close off my real dreams. Do you understand?"

  A smile flickers across her lips. "Besides, if I'm gonna tell you any secrets, the Tower is hardly the place for it, wouldn't you agree?"

Raijin has posed:
When Rayner hears that Colette trusts him? Oh, she doesn't know it, but she can see in his eyes that it means the world to him. He cracks a little smile, but he doesn't quite look her in the eyes as she tells him about how she doesn't feel like this is her dream, and he nods slightly, listening to every word she says as if it were the gospel. "Well...I wouldn't say I took to it like a fish to water. One day...I was just walking through the plains and God decided to toss a lightning bolt at me. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is up to me to decide. But...I'm with you there. I'm not entirely sure this is where I'm supposed to be but....I'm happy I ended up here."

Kindred spirits? possibly. But Rayner does look to Colette with a small smile. "I understand. and yeah....I agree. How about we go to that coffee shop where we had our little social date? You can tell me there?" did he just ask her out on a date again? Definitely!

Stardust has posed:
Colette smiles a little. "Of course everything is what you make of it. But, well I'm glad you are happy you ended up here. I'm not."

"That coffee shop is pretty nice. But there's an easier way..." she pulls out her phone and types a short message on it, before holding it up to Rayner. The message is just five letters, 'Caron'. After she has given him a chance to read it, she deletes the message and starts typing something else. "So, what lead you to say that you think Red X is one of us? Was there something at the fight you had which lead you to think that? Or just the whole thing about knowing what the spray was?"

After she's finished typing, she reads over her message, nods to herself and jabs the screen before putting her phone away. A few seconds later, Rayner's phone pings with the arrival of a message.

"TNTRXWSWBATAOOHA."

Either Colette is accidentally speaking some alien language again, or she's fallen under the spell of Red X's codemaking games.

Raijin has posed:
Rayner looks at Colette softly, he didn't know she -really- didn't like being a hero that much. He feels immense sympathy, that's for certain. He does reach over to hold her hand, if she lets him, as if trying to say that he was sorry in silence. He had no idea she didn't like what she was. If he could help, he would.

Nevertheless, when she texts him that cypher and shows him the five letters? Rayner sighs lightly. "Now that's just cruel." he -hates- Cyphers. But...it was for her. So he was gonna solve it anyways. With a light nod at her question while looking at his cell phone at the actual cypher itself, he nods lightly to her. "Because he knew the plan...and he fought the exact same way that Dan and Damian do. But..." he looks at Colette.

"I'd ask Damian what specifically he's been doing lately...or Dan. Neither of them have been very helpful field-wise, and it's strange that neither of them have been in the area when Red X was making his moves. Not only that....but Red X knew our -entire- plan. Forwards and backwards. He knew that I was going to use chains as a lightning conductor to help out, and he knew exactly that we were going to use the DNA cylinder. It's someone on the inside."

He loks at Colette before he sighs. "You don't have to believe me...but -be careful-."

Stardust has posed:
Colette listens carefull to Rayner's explanation, then nods her head. "Damian is trained by the League of Assassins. Moon Moon, I'm not entirely sure but he does fight similarly. They are both highly trained combat veterans with a similar style. So is Red X. So are many other people. All the assassins in the League, everyone who's been trained by them or by a number of similar groups. Kaldur fought similarly. He's an ex-Titan. I suspect you'll find the various Robins all fight similarly. If you ask Damian nicely, he may tell you about his cousin. There are a lot of possible explanations for that, so be wary of jumping to conclusions. Moon Moon though..."

Colette hops to her feet and paces around. "There's a lot that's weird about the way Moon Moon is taking this. The nonchalance... yes he's nonchalant about most things, but this is different. He was a member back then as well. " 'Then'? Then when? She doesn't seem to be about to elaborate though. "He has to be quite high on our suspect list. Damian's too short. But Damian is the key to this. I'm not sure if he realizes it yet. The messages we've got from Red X, look at them again some time. The way he speaks to Damian is different. Like Damian is the one who is being tested really, and we are..." she stops pacing and turns suddenly to Rayner. "Chess pieces. Testing Damian's tools. "

Returning to her seat with a slight sigh, Colette tells Rayner "It's not cruel. It's not a test. The first thing wasn't a code, that was my name. You asked, I told. The second thing isn't a code either, it's a theory. An acrostic? Is that the right word? The first letters of a sentence. You can probably figure out the first few already."

Raijin has posed:
Rayner doesn't seem too convinced that Damian isn't someone who should be suspected. "Colette...as much as your reasoning is likely sound, I still don't think it's an ex-member. I think it's a current member." he seems to clasp his hands in front of his face. "He had the same -style-. To exact. Temperment, same exact way of talking down to someone. Same temper." he shakes his head. "Just be careful around Damian and Dan from now on, alright? I still need to compare all the variables...but that's my reasoning. It's where the trail leads."

Though as he looks at the phone again and realizes this, he facepalms himself. "Man, I'm an idiot, ain't I?" he laughs a little bit and he falls onto his back, just laughing at himself, before he whispers into her ear. "I'm sorry. I've bene dealing with Cryptograms and ciphers all week. It's a beautiful last name." he whispers it because he figures someone could be watching. Leaning away, he looks her in the eyes. "Alright, I'll take a look at it." He texts her on his phone without looking. If she looked at it, it said:

'Thank you for trusting me. I trust you to...with more than you realize.'

Like his heart, for example. But she didn't know that part.

Stardust has posed:
"Red X has had assassin training," Colette points out. "That's all that tells you. As for talking down, well I'm not sure if that's an assassin thing or not. Moon Moon kind of does too. But, you ever spoken to Damian's father?" Her lips bend up into a momentary smirk. "As for the acrostic, you don't have to take a look at it, just keep it," Colette says. "I'll tell you what it means when we find out the next step in the puzzle. Just hope I'm wrong, because if I'm right we're in more trouble than we thought." She frowns suddenly. "Actually we're not..." she stops herself with a shake of her head. "No, forget it. I mean... ah!" She stands up again up, suddenly exasperated. "Look, this... this isn't... no. Forget it." She turns away and folds her arms, standing there a moment before starting to pace once more. She's silent for the space of a couple of breaths.

"I'm sorry you got hurt, Rayner. This whole thing is really messed up. But I didn't think you were going to get seriously hurt. Or I wouldn't have let it happen."

Raijin has posed:
Rayner seems to be in complete and deep though even as she speaks. "..have you ever spoken to his mother?" a question for a question. They don't know everything about Damian, but he shrugs lightly. "Let's just see where the train happens to lead us, yeah?" but...then she seems to freak out a moment about the puzzle. He looks at her as she stands up, and so does he in following her. "Hey...hey."

He'll actually try to hold her shoulders to get her to stand still and calm down. "Breathe. You had no way of knowing. It's alright. Though...are you okay?" he asks her as he looks her right in the eyes, clear worry and partial fear out of severe concern that she's not okay.

Stardust has posed:
Colette looks away, not making eye contact. She's perfectly calm when she speaks. "Talia. No. I have no idea how to track her down. I did try a while back. I think she's one of those 'you don't find her, she finds you' deals. Still it's probably for the best, all things considered. It would be awkward."

"I spoke to..." Colette looks up finally, into Rayner's eyes. "No. I mean, well Red X had Vorpal at his mercy, and the next thing Vorp knows, he's nicely tucked up in a hospital bed. So I didn't think you'd be seriously hurt. He's..." her eyes turn to the side and she stops a moment, thinking of the right words. "He's a different type of threat. Simulation off."

With the final words, the glowing blue boxes fade out, leaving the room empty but for the projectors, the control console, and the two of them. Colette looks back into Rayner's eyes one more time, then slips out from under his hands and heads for the door. "Seeya later, Rainman."

Raijin has posed:
Rayner looks at Colette when she apparently refuses to make eye contact with him. "Yeah, yeah it would be." Though as she tells him that she spoke to someone, and talks about Vorpal 'mysteriously' waking up ina a hospital, Rayner looks a little alerted. "Letty, is everything alright?" he squeezes her shoulders, until she turns off the simulation and removes herself from his grasp.

Reaching out for her almost, Rayner looks at her. "Letty..." and he lowers his hand, looking at her. "See you soon..." and he looks at his phone, like he was going to text her later, but he sits down. It's like all this new information is messing with his thought process. Did he say something wrong? Very possible. But one thing was certain.

He was now -very- worried as he sat down, hands clasped in front of him.