8691/Seeking Wisdom

Seeking Wisdom
Date of Scene:	08 August 2019
Location:	Themysciran Embassy
Synopsis:	Colette approaches Diana to ask for some help training the Titan's new recruits, and discuss philosophy.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Wonder Woman

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Stardust has posed:
    The last time a Titan came calling for Diana, the approach had been informal to say the least. That's probably the nature of the cat in question, though. This time, proper channels have been used. An official communication from Titans Tower, not via the JLA but direct to the embassy to request an audience. Yes, an audience. The language was surprising conventional diplomatic protocol, much more what Diana would be used to seeing from politicians and dignitaries of other diplomatic missions in New York, than members of the cape community. Perhaps then as unconventional as Vorpal's earlier approach then, but in a very different way.

    Still, it's perhaps a comfort not to have things sprung on you. There was no indication of what the meeting would be about; hopefully not further dire warnings. All that had really been indicated in the request to meet was that Stardust of the Titans wished to have a meeting, and so at the appointed time, she turns up at the embassy, in full costume, politely greeting the flunkies at reception and waiting patiently for the meeting to begin.

    Stardust seems perfectly at comfort in the environment of the embassy. Of course she's faced aliens and monsters, so an embassy shouldn't be a scary thing, but the weird formalities of the diplomatic world can be a shock to anyone's system to those not used to them. She seems almost at home as she sits in reception waiting to be called.

Wonder Woman has posed:
The two flunkies at the front desk are Amazonian women of over six feet in height, two of them in fact. One is wearing an outfit of brown and black leathers, a sleeveless top in brown leather with straps that go around her body and buckle up the front of her torso, with black leather pants on, the other is in a white dress. One of them is a redhead and the other a blond.

They both greet Colette, but the blond in the white dress actually smiles while the redhead shows no expression what so ever.

Its only a few moments of wait before they notify Colette that is time to go back to Diana's office and the blond shows her the way, walking with a dedicated stride and pace to her movement.

The doors to Diana's office are already open and Diana herself is seen within, in a blue dress and her hair tied back, she's standing and is beside one of the east facing windows, she's holding a phone to the side of her face and is speaking softly into it as Colette is escorted into the office and told by the blond to have a seat, in a friendly way of course.

Stardust has posed:
    Colette greets both of the Amazonian flunkies with a polite, respectful nod and a smile, but doesn't try to engage either in any conversation beyond the business of they day; she's sure they have plenty of it to attend to other than her visit. Though the blonde towers over her, she strides quickly beside her, keeping pace comfortably, and gives her a second, slightly deeper nod and a "Thank you."

    Entering Diana's office, Colette can't help breaking into a broad smile at the woman, an obvious trace of her naturally less formal and enthusiastic (some might say too enthusiastic, and often do) personality bubbling up. She gives Diana a short bow and, a small break from normal diplomatic protocol, a cheery wave of the hand, before taking her seat at the desk and waiting for her host to finish her call. She doesn't want to interrupt so she contents herself with a simple mouthed 'hi there'.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana has her phone beside her face and speaking quietly/softly into it in Japanese. She's speaks it fluently as though she'd been speaking it her entire life and she speaks it softly like she's speaking to a close friend. She'd acknowledged Colette's arrival with a glance and a visibly quick smile before her eyes went back to the tall window before her with the sheer white drapes flowing down before it.

After only about a minute the phone call comes to an end then and Diana glances down to the phone in her hand that looks to be nothing more than a single slip of clear glass once its deactivated. She stares at it a moment before she turns and regards Colette now.

"Stardust." Diana says then with a much more pleasant look upon her face, she takes a moment to set that clear glass phone down upon the corner of her desk before she starts to walk toward Colette where she'd chosen to sit. "It is so good to see you. I like your uniform." She comments then, having noticed it quite obviously!

"How are things?" Diana asks then as she will move to sit herself down in a seat beside that of Colette's own.

Stardust has posed:
    "Your Excellency," Stardust replies. Then the grin takes over, and she adds "Diana. It's good to see you. And thank you for agreeing to this meeting. The uniform? Hmm". She gives a small non-commital shrug. "It does the job. To be honest I prefer casual wear, but you know. Image is half the job. At least in public." She gives a showy snap of her fingers and her domino mask disappears. "As we're not in public now... please call me Colette. I hope all is well with you."

    Colette leans back a bit, getting comfortable. "Things are... okay. But there's something I hoped you would agree to help me with. And I guess this comes to your ambassadorial role rather than you're uh... other job, if you know what I mean. Hence this approach. We have a few new recruits. I've been putting them through their paces, but... well, I'm not exactly confident I'm the right person for the job. The Robins have been somewhat occupied of late, and if I'm honest I'm not sure they are the right people for the job either. Their training is very..." she gropes for a word. "Specific. I know your people do defense classes. I was hoping it would be possible to arrange a little rather more specialized combat training for our recruits. Primarily defensive. Just enough to get them a little bit of discipline and tactical understanding."

    There's a short pause. "One of them is male. Kind of. I mean he's male as far as I can tell, but he's also not human, so he's not exactly... well. I don't know if that would be a problem for your people."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana listens to the young woman's words and she just shows a light grin to the first part. "I much prefer my own name to any special titles." She softly admits to Colette before watching her do away with the domino mask.

When the topic shifts to Colette's request, Diana's slim pointed chin lowers some as she stares with a more even attention steadily placed upon the Titan before her. She remains seated with her back straight and her hands together above her knees in her lap.

A slowly smiles spreads over her red hued lips and she lightly shakes her head to the last comment. "We do not discriminate against genders when it comes to offering combative lessons to people, Colette." Diana says. "Not here in the United States. In fact, what you are describing... your desire for additional training for your associates, is why I--and my sisters--put together the Themysciran Arts Center, just across the park outside. It is there that my sisters and I have begun to offerse classes to those who are willing, fit and able of mind and body."

Diana glances toward one of the windows that is in the direction of the Arts Center but its not quite visible from here regardless. "With Queen Hippolyta permitting me six total Amazonian sisters with me away from the island now, we have even more strength in numbers when it comes to doing these classes."

Diana's blue eyes go back to Colette then and she smiles to her. "We should get your friends signed up for those. If you feel that our kind of combat is the kind of combat you want them to be immersed within."

Stardust has posed:
    Colette bites her lip, then leans forwards, hands clutched together. "That's the thing. I'm not sure that signing them up for the regular courses would be a good idea. Which is why I approached you. I want them to have the discipline and combat awareness your people can teach, but the program would have to be tailored a little different. I mean... one is a mutant who can make things explode. One is a sentient robot who's possibly as strong as you are. And one..." She stops, shakes her head a little and grins wryly before looking back at Diana. "The third one is a pacifist. Which is kind of weird for a superhero team, yeah. But we think he has a lot of potential in support. He needs to know how to defend himself if he's attacked though."

    Colette settles back again, thinking over what she'd just said, deciding if it needs expansion. "I know that's a bit of an ask. If there's something we can do in return... I think I can persuade the foundation to make a donation or something. I think it would help them a lot though. And they're good people. They have the potential to do a lot of good, but they're... inexperienced." Colette's painfully aware that most people are pretty inexperienced in this business compared to Diana, particularly herself, but she's more worried that her inexperience will cost the new recruits that somehow seem to have landed up her responsibility than she is of herself. A couple of years in the business now has made her pretty confident that she'll muddle through whatever the world throws at her, even if she doesn't really know what she's doing.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana gently nods her head twice to the comments spoken to her on this request. "I understand." She quietly says then. "But the training that we offer at the Arts Center is not... taking it lightly for the sake of those from the public who sign up. We are training people to be warriors for a reason. Because to truly be an Amazon warrior you have to use your head before you use your hands. That is the goal of our combat training for everyone, including ourselves. My sisters and I are there throughout the day, before the sun is up and after it is down. Now that there are seven of us here, myself included? It is more than enough to keep the Arts Center's combat training a steady level throughout the day."

A breath is drawn in then and Diana shows a very faint smile to Colette. "Members of the Titans would of course get a special time to train along side us though, in the evenings, after the public has gone for the night. But... there is only so much time in a day. Only so much we can offer at this present time and place. Why, just the other day I had the Princess from Wakanda come to the Embassy to ask me for self defense training. She claimed that her own people would not allow it to be given to her by their own teachers... A sentiment I once experienced in my own youth. So I did offer her a time slot as well, but..." Diana shakes her head then. "I have not heard from her since. Perhaps she had a change of heart."

Stardust has posed:
    Colette answers with a broad, genuine smile. "I can't speak for princesses of Wakanda, but I can assure you my people will attend any time slots you can offer them, if I have to drag them there myself. Alternatively if your people could spare a bit of time we have facilities available in the tower that are particularly suitable for training the kind of people who might otherwise accidentally break the furniture... or walls. Maybe if your Wakandan princess turns up again we could have them train together.

    There's a downward glance, then another smile and Colette lets out a long breath. "Thanks, Diana. It's a weight off my mind. Honestly I feel like I'm the newbie, I've been kind of stressed out about the whole thing of training the recruits. It's hard to shake the feeling that I'm kind of... " she looks away, staring out the windows, and shrugs. "Honestly half the time I feel like I'm kind of a bit of a fraud. It's... stupid. I mean I've helped save the world twice, that's got to count for something. But you know what?" She turns back from the window, looking at Diana again. "Well, it's like... that thing with the giant mushrooms. If I hadn't gone and found the good mushrooms, who knows what would have happened. But honestly when I look back on that and think about what I actually did, mostly it was arguing. I pretty much just talked at people until they agreed to what I was asking just to get me to shut up. Talking Naula into letting us use her ship. Talking aliens to let us have a sample of the fungus. Talking Tony into building amplifiers. It doesn't actually feel heroic."

    Colette blinks a few times. "Uh. Sorry. I didn't mean to unload on you like that."

Wonder Woman has posed:
The initial words regarding the training are listened to but not commented on just this moment as what Colette moves into, topics wise, is a bit more pressing for the Princess to observe.

She adjusts her expression to show a calm stare, but her stare remains ever strong and attentive to the one speaking to her... Diana is a very good listener after all. She does show the hints of a smile then before she responds. "Colette." Diana says as she reaches out to press her hand to Colette's right wrist, a gesture meant to show support and understanding.

"Being a... public facing super hero... deep inside the mix of it and everything that goes on behind the scenes of 'it' is what you are experiencing. You are experiencing that it is not all about... dramatic moments of emerging from a burning building with innocent lives in your arms. Much of it is, just as you are speaking about, delegation of duties and making sure that the right people are doing the right jobs at the, right, times."

Diana gives Colette's wrist a gentle squeeze before she draws her hand back to her other once more. "You did an exceptional job at that during the fungal fiasco." Her own personal term for that event a year ago. "I watched you and your delegations. I assure you that I was impressed with how you performed those necessary tasks. And this? You are reaching out to me for the best interests of your teammates well being. That is what a good leader does."

Diana lowers her chin just a little, and her dark finely shaped brows raise up just slightly. "You are a good leader."

Stardust has posed:
    Colette listens intently to the older woman's words. Diana is not just a good listener, but a good speaker to. The praise she acknowledges with a small smile and a downward flick of her eyes, perhaps a hint of embarrassment there, but on the other hand who doesn't like a little praise?

    When Diana has finished, Colette is silent for a while. Small flickers of expression suggest she's about to speak several times before she finally decides what to say. "I'm not. I mean I wouldn't make a good leader. I'm too impetuous, I know that. But sometimes you just... you have to be. Sometimes you have to step up and do the job that's in front of you, because it needs to be done. But everything you say is right, because that's the whole point, isn't it? I never wanted any of this really. Not the walking out of burning buildings part even. Some days I feel like I'm the only cape out there who didn't dream of this job as a kid, though I'm sure that's not true." But it's the job that's in front of you and sometimes you're the person who has to do it, right?"

    Colette looks into Diana's eyes for a few moments, then settles back again with a smile. "You know, when I first joined the Titans, it amused me hearing the others talking about you. Some of the boys especially. It was like... Batman, Superman, Iron Man, meh. But wait until you meet Wonder Woman." The smile widens into a grin. "You have some real fans there. Not that I'm mentioning anyone's names, not even Vorpal or Gar or Robin, I don't want them to kill me. And I kind of thought, you know. Boys. But now? I know why. You don't just walk out of burning buildings either, you inspire people. And you smile when you're doing it. And somehow you've been doing it for... Well, I don't know. But someone once told me that you fought the Nazis, and you came out of retirement to do that. So quite a while. Given the whole... " she waves an arm around vaguely, as if that will explain everything. "Well, I mean I've heard stuff from Cassie. I guess you've been doing this a whole lot longer than that, on and off. And you're still smiling. And you have time for everyone. To me, that's what really makes the 'Wonder' part true."

Wonder Woman has posed:
"The person that we are when we are leading, is often not the person we are when we are not. The time to lead, is a time where a different part of our personalities push their way to the forefronts of our minds. Its then that we find out what kind of leader we truly are, and what kind... we are not." She softly exhales at those words. "I have seen many men and women who have seemed confident and strong in a calm moment, go weak and brittle in a dangerous one. You? I saw someone who picked up the stress, carried it, and did not let it dampen their spirit. That, is all I needed to see to know you had the right elements to be a person we can all rely on, not just those within the Titans. You came through, for all of us." Another quick smile is shown.

The praise heeped onto her just makes Diana's facial expression sort've melt into a show of warmth and appreciation. She glances away for a second and then looks back to Colette.

"I left my home when the world was amidst a great and terrible war." She then says. "I did not know what a 'super hero' was then, even less than I know what one is today. But what I did know is that there was a conflict going on where innocents were being harmed, and I knew it inside my core that it was my job to try to help. Not to sit back and let it resolve itself... But... that is a long story, and I assure you that I was not entirely perfect throughout it. I have gone down a long road to get to here, one that I never knew... would bring me to 'this' place."

Diana glances around her office around them before she places her blue eyed gaze back upon Colette. "I am happy to be here though, now, with the likes of yourself and your companions, such as Vorpal... He is, quite the character, as I am sure you know. As well as all the others. So yes, do bring them here and we will work with them and vice versa my sisters and I will try to find time to come to your facilities."

Stardust has posed:
    "'Quite the character' is a good way of putting it," Colette says, grinning widely at Diana's assessment of Vorpal. "He's also quite mad. But in a good way. He makes the world a brighter place, and that's as good a thing as any of us can hope to do. Not so good at making himself laugh as he is at making the rest of us laugh, but I think that's the nature of the cat. He's a good guy."

    There's an uncontrollable smirk. "Don't tell him I said that. On the other hand, I do blame him for everything. He's the one who dragged me into the Titans. Though to be fair, Cassie was going to do that anyway." Colette gives a short laugh. "Anyway, thanks again for the offer of help. And... thanks for everything. I'll be in contact about making the arrangements for the training, but I've taken up enough of your time for today. "

    Colette gets to her feet, her domino mask reappearing on her face as easily as it had vanished, and offers her hand to shake. Then a small twitch of her head the tiniest hint of a frown reveals one more question bubbling up to the surface. "Does it... doing this for so long, does it ever get lonely?"

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana cannot help but let her smile blossom into a full blown laugh at the talk of Vorpal. She'd seen him just the other day, he'd rushed here to tell her about Grail's arrival in Central Park and he'd come here in such a hurry he'd looked all kinds of fluffed and disheveled. "I will not say a word." She assures before she then calms a bit again and adds. "Please do mention to Cassie that I would request her to stop by here as soon as she is able, it has been some time since I got to speak with her in person."

After that is said and the discussion of loneliness is brought up it strikes Diana in a way that might show a moment of true internal turmoil over the ins and outs of the that question's... complexities.

Diana looks away for a split second before she casts her eyes back onto Colette's own. "Loneliness is a curious thing." She responds. "Though I am surrounded by friends and family members on a daily basis, I am still distraught over the loves and losses I've experienced since leaving and island where my sisters and I did not age. I only experienced one close personal death in my time living exclusively at home on Themyscira. One close personal friend passed from a tragic accident... in nine hundred years of life on my people's island."

"But... in the one hundred I have lived away from it? I have loved and lost so many dear friends, and people I would consider family. There is loneliness in that, in not being able to hear their voices or see their faces before me today, tomorrow, or whenever we could find a moment to be near one another."

"So yes, there is most assuredly a loneliness there... But." Diana then shows a quick smile, honest and true. "To have known them, is to have built a stronger spirit inside of myself simply through experiencing their individual greatnesses." She pauses. "Those losses have made me stronger, and if I feel remorse in their absences? I think of them, and see their faces in my mind's eye, then feel a little better when I remember the wonderful moments we did share together."

Stardust has posed:
    "Nobody ever dies when they live on in memory, hmm?" Colette smiles and gives a nod of her head. Her eyes go to the side as a thought occurs to her. "In some cases that's all too true. It gets pretty noisy in my head sometimes what with all the dead aliens I have camping out in there. I don't know why they didn't pick some loved one to bother instead of me."

    Colette pauses a moment in thought as she steps towards the door. "You know. One of them told me something that... well, every society has its own stories about life after death. We like to tell ourselves that we'll meet again in some way, whether we truly believe that in our hearts or not. There's a story that some aliens believe. That all life has its origin in a single source, and that when we die we return to that source. A vast field of life energy that surrounds the universe like a kind of wall. That nobody ever truly dies. I guess like any version of heaven, maybe it's true or maybe that's another story that we have to comfort ourselves with. I guess it's nice to think of it. But... well. I don't know whether to believe him or not, but he says he saw it with his own eyes."

    Colette stops at the door and gives a little shrug. "It's probably best not to know. Until we find out. Before then, I figure it's better to concentrate on living than worry about what comes next. Thanks for everything, Diana."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana follows along with Colette as the other moves. She listens and folds her hands together in front of her lap before she just gently lets the corners of her lips upturn into a displayed smile again. "The mysteries of the after life." She says. "I think you can rest assured that we are undoubtedly creatures created with energy and that when we pass that energy is certainly dispersed into other forms and places. So what you have... heard there? It may not be that far off. Of course, there are many beliefs out there, and so long as they bring someone comfort and joy while also not harming anyone else, then well... I support those beliefs."

"It was good to see you again, Colette." Diana then says. "You should bring the others to the Arts Center soon, you can watch a sparring match. They draw quite a crowd, especially on the weekends!"

She'll make sure to walk Colette out though, to be a kind host, and she needs to speak to those at the front desk in the foyer as well.