Session 18

Session was a Downtime Session, that took place on the 14th of August 2023.

Notes were taken by Respawn, Polychrome, and Donna

## Recap

### Meditation - Rhys and Julie

Julie visits Rhys, and they have a talk about Julie wishing to be brave like Rhys. Or at least braver than she currently is. Rhys tells her that he is trained in compartmentalizing, and highly efficient at just .. Turning his emotions off to deal with them later. He also explains that he has the added “bonus” of being unable to understand emotions and pressed situations as well as “normal” people, which means that he has to store situations away to deal with later when he has time to actually process them, to avoid a complete meltdown.

He tries to teach Julie how to visualize her feelings, and attach them to mental objects she can sort through in a room of events and feelings. It might not have worked entirely well as Julie made mental contact with Darkseid who offered to just put Julie out of her misery because she was so doomed. Julie said no thanks, and ended up worse when they stopped meditating. Rhys offered her a hug which made it a bit better, and the two agreed to try and meditate again.

They also discuss how Rhys has thought about whether Deathstroke actually loves him, and how he’s always been afraid of actually knowing of he does or not, but how after Rick, after Diana, and the team, it doesn’t matter as much. He doesn’t think about it as much.

### Visiting Nana - Rhys and Alyssa

Rhys and Alyssa go to visit Nana. Rhys has brought a fig tree on the brink of death for nana to nurse back to health, because she likes plants, and also Alyssa told him. They have deviled eggs and ham together, and discuss what Nana does in her spare time. She does Judo, and made friends with a lovely young man, handsome, who gave her a good deal of private home security.

Turns out good ol X fixed nana up with some STS gear for free, because he cares about Alyssa, and benevolently decided to make sure her beloved grandmother would be safe no matter what. A romantic gesture that Alyssa doesn’t like, and we’re not pleased with, and therefore we will keep an eye on X from now on because he can’t be trusted.

Rhys does not understand the problem, but he trusts Alyssa’s judgment and if she feels uncomfortable, then Rhys will do his best to keep her safe. And considering Rick’s warning about X .. Rhys will be on his guard from now on.

### Vee needs to talk

* VEE GOES TO VISIT EVELYN
* Fused. IT TRIED TO FUSE WITH EVELYN AND FAILED.
* Evelyn died. That’s why it couldn’t fuse with her. It fused with Vee instead.
* It tried to fuse with Evelyn, to fix her. This happened instead. (This being Evelyn is a Star)
* When Evelyn runs out of energy, she may turn into a black hole. Ricky told her, gave her a timetable and some things to do to make it longer. A couple years. Working with Martian Manhunter to find a star that doesn’t have any habitable planets and won’t endanger any habitable planets if she absorbs their sun. If he finds one, she’s probably going to be gone for a while. Vee will have to be there to look after Halcyon during that time.
* Vee and Evelyn talk about Vee’s relationships. It’s a lot.
* EVELYN FIGURES OUT BRUCE WAYNE IS BATMAN! Vee now knows the identities of all the Robins and Batman. Whoops lmao.

### Not Our Mother

Feeling adrift, Donna resolves to meet with her sister Lizzie. Not Trinity, but Lizzie. The last time they had spent time together, things had taken an unexpected sour turn with a group of their peers at Themyscira, and Donna had longed to bond with her sister in a fashion removed from their heritage. This meeting took place at Tortillo's, a popular Mexican restaurant in Chicago, the city where the Titans were based. There was quite the crowd, given Lizzie's renown as the esteemed leader of the Titans. Eventually, the two of them are able to speak privately.

Donna quickly motormouths her feelings to Lizzie, from her LGBT confusion to freaky fish guys to dateable assassins to "work romance". Lizzie eventually gets Donna to slow down, starting with a warning to avoid dating within the team, so as to avoid the daunting drama that comes with it (re: Beast Boy & Raven). She also encourages Donna to quite literally slow down on her feelings, emphasizing the importance of taking the time to process these feelings, and make sense of the truth lying within. Donna is reluctant at first, but relents. She has begun to recognize the weight of these things, and how they affect not only her, but those around her as well.

With that said, Lizzie admits her own faults with her romantic feelings, such as a fixation on older, powerful men versed in the art of assassination. Donna was led to believe that there is a list, and that Deathstroke is strangely on that list, but neither Rhys nor Damian, which makes no sense. They are quite capable warriors in their own right! More than anything, however, Lizzie insists that she is not her mother, and that "the literature"TM is dated. Donna feels that she will need to get a second opinion on what exactly that means, but there is a kinship there over how... whelming their mother is. Perhaps in time, they will be able to weather the responsibility of being Wonder Woman's daughters. But for now, they are teenagers, with teenager concerns.