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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:48:33 GMT
Ashley’s small frame was shaking as she made her way through downtown Jump City, to the harbor. She was about to do what she had vowed to never do again: interact with the Teen Titans. After dismissing Beast Boy, she had blocked out the superheroes from her mind, but now she was constantly bombarded with… images of them, and this ‘Terra’. Ashley refused to label them memories, even though that is essentially what they felt like. Some of it was even mixing into her own recollection of her past, but Ashley was still desperately clinging onto her own identity.
It was disruptive to her simple life- and confusing, so she wanted it to stop. This was her last resort, to talk to the Titans.To demand answers. She almost wished that she had held onto the communicator that Beast Boy had offered her over a year ago. Now she hadn’t any way to contact them, so Ashley found herself trekking across the city, and borrowing a boat from a friend to travel to the superhero’s island. She had a memory of ‘Terra’ traveling to the island by means of a floating rock. It felt like deja vu, when she began gliding across the water.
Ashley finally reached the island. She secured the motorboat, and tried to ground herself. She shuffled to the front door of the the towering ‘T’ building, and rung the doorbell quickly, before she could chicken out. She prayed that the green changeling wouldn’t be the one to answer. There was a long pause, and the teen wondered if the team was even around. The metallic doors abruptly slid open, assuring her that someone was present.
“Hi,” she greeted, her voice revealing that she was clearly uneasy with being there. ‘I… I think I need some help.”
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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:50:21 GMT
Raven was making cleansing poultices, tying together herbs in small bundles. She’d leave them surreptitiously around the tower, just inside the doorway of her friend’s rooms, and all other areas of the house. Not that she thought they would mind, really, but she was about 98% sure she’d get some sort of flac for it. About the fact that she cared, that she wanted to send good vibes and purge bad energy - and she did care, her friends knew that she cared, but she wasn’t exactly in the habit of mentioning it.
The doorbell rang, and Raven wouldn’t deny that she jumped (at least, not to herself). She had to be in a very specific headspace to make the poultices, to imbue them with the right kind of energy for them to work. Raven finished binding the poultice she was on and set it into a bowl of sea water, before heading to get the door. The other titans were busy, scattered - which was why Raven had chosen today to make her poultices.
Terra - or Ashley, whatever she was calling herself - was the last thing Raven expected to find on the doorstep. She hadn’t quite believed Beast Boy, not completely, and though the girl she’d seen before did bear a passing resemblance to Terra, she hadn’t spoken to her and had written it off as a weird encounter.
But this - Raven was genuinely bewildered, and energy flickered around her fingertips, unsure, wary. It took a second for the words to register, and Raven’s brow furrowed, lips pursed in mild confusion.
“…help? With…what?”
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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:50:39 GMT
Post by Speedy on less than a minute ago
Most of her free time was spent in the weight room, beating her frustrations into the punching bag. Music from her headphones blared into her ear canals as she finished the last of her workout session before heading out to get a bottle of water from the kitchen. The Tower seemed pretty quiet, but it’s not like she would have really noticed if it hadn’t been. Save for the blaring alarms that occasionally went off, any and all background noise would be drowned out.
She hadn’t even noticed Raven in all honesty, not until the light from the outdoors pierced through the main entryway and cast her shadow across the carpet. Something about her teammate’s stance indicated something was wrong. Rose quickly yanked the buds from her ears and went to see what had seemingly put Raven even more on edge than usual.
Though she hadn’t been on team long, she knew enough to recognize the immediate cause for alarm. Truth be told, Rose still held resentment towards the team’s Judas. It had been Terra that her father had taken under his tutelage, Terra he had trained. And it was because of Terra that this team still had reservations about trusting her.
Her frown deepened to an outright scowl at the sight of the petite blonde. To be honest, Rose wasn’t entirely sure how she was alive. From what she knew, Terra had died in that whole incident with the volcano. Sure, that hadn’t stopped Slade from coming back. Maybe it was possible for her to be here too. A single blue eye fell on Raven, wondering how to proceed. Though she had her own issues with the girl, this wasn’t her fight or her call.
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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:52:03 GMT
Starfire had become restless and bored this particular afternoon; it had been a lazy sort of day. There had only been some small incidents in the city, which were dealt with by a couple of Titans at a time, so she hadn’t really had much to do. She often welcomed these relaxing days, as the opportunity for team-bonding usually arose. However, her teammates seemed preoccupied with other activities.
She had tried to entertain herself, but reading magazines and watching TV simply wasn’t as satisfying today. Now the alien found herself wandering the halls of the tower, searching for the others. She had thought Raven might be in her room, but she hadn’t been there. Beast Boy and Cyborg had gone into town the last time their communicators had beeped, and Robin could really be anywhere in the tower. Ravager might be training, but Starfire wasn’t as close with her new teammate as she would have liked, and was not about about to disturb her in the gym again.
In her meandering, Starfire wound up in the hallway near the front door. She was about to call out, as there was both Raven and Ravager! Then, she noticed the door, and the figure standing in it.
“Terra!” she cried instead, flying closer to greet her. Ravager and Raven were unintentionally shoved out of the way in the process. “I knew you had not forgotten your friends! Please, what has brought you to our Tower? You have been missed, friend. Please, come in!”
Starfire excitedly picked up her communicator and called their team’s leader to announce the girl’s arrival. “Robin, it is urgent; friend Terra is here! Come quickly!”
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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:52:34 GMT
The message Robin received from Starfire was unexpected. He told her he will be right there and no more. He didn’t want to jump to any conclusions and needed more information before making any decisions. Robin took his time, and made his way to the living room where he expected “Terra” to be by now. It was likely the girl was not actually who Starfire thought she was. He knew how uncanny the similarities are between Terra and Ashley and he was aware of how much Starfire missed her. But he couldn’t shake the suspicion that Terra really had returned. Nor could he escape the memories of how she nearly killed him and his family. Indeed this was a delicate situation and it put Robin on edge. Depending on who was in the living room and what their intentions ar-Robin’s train of thought was cut short as he was suddenly face to face with the girl. He confronted her with all his worries and made his inquiry, “Are you Terra? Or are you Ashley?” In spite of everything, secretly he hoped she was Terra.
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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:53:21 GMT
A shell-shocked Ashley was ushered into the living room, and told to sit down. The questions had started at the door, and only kept coming. Four sets of eyes (with a single eye that she didn’t recognize) were glued on her, waiting for her to start talking. She vaguely acknowledged that she was relieved that Beast Boy wasn’t around. She didn’t know where to begin; it was so unnerving how they acted like they knew her. Ashley hadn’t even remembered telling them her name, but somehow they knew it. She took a deep breath, and tried to explain her purpose for seeking them out.
“I told you guys! I need help,” she began, a bit irritated, and quite overwhelmed. Also, hadn’t she already said why she was here? She nervously brushed her hair aside, as she tried to figure out how to phrase things.
“I know a lot about you, the Teen Titans, but-but I shouldn’t. I’m Ashley, but somehow I know a lot of things about… your friend Terra. It doesn’t make any sense to me! I’ve just been in high school the whole time, just a normal girl with a normal life,” she told them. Who was she trying to convince with that last bit? Herself?
“She- Terra, keeps showing up in my dreams and sometimes even when I’m awake. She’s practically all I can think about lately, and I want it to stop. That’s why I’m here!” Ashey had said all of this in a rushed, frantic voice. Now she paused, trying to collect herself. She felt so anxious that she wanted to cry. Maybe it had been a mistake to come here. After all, all of it sounded too crazy.
“But…” she started again, her voice softer this time. “Being here with you guys, it feels really familiar.” That was true, everything about the three Titans that had spoken to her, it felt… comfortable, almost. It was really surreal.
Ashley’s next words came out before she could stop herself. The panic was back in her voice. “It almost feels like I remember the Titans, and things about Terra, but I’m not her, like Beast Boy thinks I am. There’s no way. I can’t be. Like I said, I had a completely different life than your friend. I don’t have powers. I can’t be her. That’s why I’m here, I want you guys to help, and make this stop.” Tears were starting to fall from her blue eyes at this point. She hated how pathetic she looked in front of the Titans. She didn’t know how they were going to react, and it terrified her.
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Post by Starfire on Mar 14, 2018 3:54:49 GMT
Raven watched the proceedings with a deepening frown, though she let the dark energy pulsing in her hands flicker out. She would admit, she felt better when Robin came upstairs to take control of the situation. Raven hung back, mostly quiet as Ashley was ushered into the Tower, and watched, observing.
She was unable to curb her curiosity entirely, however, and let a small spark light the end of two fingertips, extended beneath her cloak, out of sight. She made a small circle, and reached out to Ashley with her empathic powers. It wasn’t a power she made use of often - on the battlefield, emotionally manipulating an opponent was usually more trouble than it was worth in the heat of battle, and who would she absorb emotions from, if not her close friends? It felt like an invasion to her, most of the time - she could just as easily not use it, so why should she? But this - Ashley-Terra, turning up out of nowhere - Raven wanted as much information as she could get.
Genuine relief and, as expected, Ashley was feeling mildly overwhelmed. The wave of panic and frustration washed over Raven as swiftly as it did Ashley, though it didn’t take empathic powers to realize she was out of her depth. Raven could feel her own eyes begin to well with tears as Ashley’s terror threatened to choke her, tugging at Raven’s throat with the indication of deep anxiety. She let the connection break, inhaling to banish the fear she’d taken from Ashley.
“Robin.” Raven’s voice was quiet, but demanding and serious. She knew her tone would catch the leader’s attention, and probably the rest of her teammates. “Perhaps it would be best if we…give Ashley a minute to breathe.”
Her look was pointed enough that she thought Robin would get the picture - Raven wasn’t so sure that if Ashley didn’t get more worked up, she wouldn’t fall prey to a panic attack.
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