Open Skies | OPEN

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

The skies above the coastal city were full of noise in the late summer day, birds of all kinds calling and shrieking challenges and information to one another as they fought to be heard over the blaring of car horns and the noise of the humans and meta humans that inhabited it. Shift couldn't parse all of it; she couldn't talk like animals talked, even if she was in the form of one of them, and that was probably for the best - if she had animals and humans to talk to, it would be that much more alluring to just stay an animal. The animal kingdom did lack plumbing, which as a downside, however. And pizza. And most of her friends. It was still nice to get out and see the city from a birds' eye view, literally, once in a while. It was a pity she couldn't fly...not like how Chae flew, at least. She couldn't talk while flying, which was a big downside, unless she wanted to annoy her teammates by chirping in their ears.

It had been funny the first couple of times she'd done it and they'd crashed, but then they'd gotten annoyed at her, so that was off the table for a while. Oh, well. She'd just have to find something else to do. The Tyrants were still wandering around, although it seemed they had slowed down lately - either they had gone back to wherever they'd come from, or they were hiding and gathering their strength. Athena whistled a small tune, a trilling series of chirps just to amuse herself, as she flapped to a stop, landing on a shabby concrete sidewalk littered with cracks, grass growing through some of the larger ones. The other Titans, few as they were, were scattered around the city. Some of them had school, or family to visit, and some of them were probably still sleeping in the Tower.

And they weren't the only ones out and about in the city, she was sure. Allies, enemies, and some people who were somewhere in between were all present.

words: 348 | tagged: open!

[Deleted]

..........Things were especially quiet on that day for Trina. Nothing was going on. Nothing that she was assigned to, nothing she encountered while walking down the streets, nothing she found on the newspapers, no emergency declared by a loudspeaker in public, nothing. The rest of the Titans were all over at that point. Some frolicking amongst themselves, maybe. Some with family, some still sleeping soundly, most of them, to her, definitely indulging in a system and life which she had never experienced before in her life, before things happened almost a year back.

..........Incredibly so, the gift of an ability to adapt was one of Trina's. Adapting to a country which her own country's leaders proclaimed as enemy, adapting to a lifestyle she had never tasted, adapting to a time she had never dreamt of, adapting to herself too. Admittedly, she has had a bit of trouble with the last part, fact being that she had already knocked into three different things earlier while walking on sidewalks towards a spot where she could just lay about in a temperature she would deem comfortable to her, at a time when such climate was scarce.

..........She was to just sit around an area amongst some cliffs. There she would use one thing she was armed with, a plastic bag which had Turkmen melon vodka and ready-made bread and butter. Calm yourself should you have thought it was a gun made out of plastic bags with the bullets being glass with vodka and bread and butter infused in them, for it was just a plain bag that had a bottle of vodka infused with melon, and a ziplock bag of bread and butter. She stepped off the sidewalk, went towards a spot under a tree by the cliff, and set up shop.

..........She placed the seemingly unnecessarily large bag onto the ground under the tree. From there, she casually tore it so it would become akin to a carpet. Stretched it at just the right places, with the right amount of force, and it was really big. Big enough for two of her. And she sat. Oh, right, and she may have startled a bird by the sidewalk on the way there.


words: 369 tag: Athena 'Shift' Logan

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Seeing TRINA walking down the sidewalk was still something to marvel at. Mostly, Shift found herself marveling that the other girl could move at all, much less not fall over every time someone bumped into her or there was a stiff breeze! Saying Zeynab had a gift for technology would be misleading, however, if not cruel - as much as she could explain, the new Titan had told her team that her suit was no suit, in truth, not like one would see on Batman from time-to-time when he went head to head with larger foes. It was, amazingly, the sole thing that housed what was left of her body...and that wasn't much, from what Athena could tell.

It was rude to sniff people without permission, no matter how much she might have been burning with curiosity, so the shape shifting Titan had held her impulse in check. In most animal forms she'd shifted around the redhead, Zeynab smelled like human - faintly unwashed, nut not overpoweringly so - and a lot of fancy metals that she couldn't have named for the life of her. Whatever it was that made up her suit, it worked - and more than that, it gave her enough power to help people. Wary as she was around most technology (the more advanced the worse it got) Shift couldn't have ever ignored another teammate. Had she wanted to ignore TRINA she couldn't have, not when she was setting out a picnic only a foot or two away.

Feathers melted into fur with a thought, and the two-ounce bird sprouted up and out faster than the eye could see until Shift stood on her own two feet - well, boots - and walked over to the time-travelled Titan, her green feathers replaced by easily-identifiable dark green fur. "Hey, TRINA, what's up? Is that a - picnic?" The stutter in her greeting could be attributed to Athena having noticed that what she had thought was a large bottle of fancy imported water was, on closer inspection, clearly vodka. Was that even safe? Was it legal? It would be hard to argue the legal age of a time-traveler, and just thinking of it was enough to give her the start of a headache, so Shift didn't say a word. Feigned ignorance was bliss...or something like that.

words: 383 | tagged: @trina

[Deleted]

..........Ah, it seemed that Trina, or Zeynab wasn't alone under the tree. She reached up, lowered her head to let her hand flick her large lock of braids back, seeing a familiar patch of moving green, so as she thought of the leader of the Teen Titans, Shift. As always, she did the usual marvel of shapeshifting, this time from a green bird to her own self, without something close to even a grunt. How she did it without pain when everything including her bones change is a mystery, akin to what the KGB was like back in the Soviet times. Truth be told, she was actually expecting there to too be some form of wonder in Athena's mind about Zeynab's own little predicament with her body.

..........She stood at the sight of the green bird dynamically shapeshifting into a human full of fur of the same tint while walking towards her. The grassless green happened to just enquire about Trina's setup of a stretched plastic bag, vodka and bread, asking if it was a picnic. "Tere, Shift-yoldaş!" she greeted cheerfully, in other languages, for some reason. Trina very well towered over the leader, being just over two feet taller. Commenting upon the things under her feet, she said and offered in her usual, signature 'Trans-Soviet' accent, "This is more or ly'ess a picnic. Would you like to join for bread and b'otter?"

..........Faces and speech don't lie. Sure, Athena may have a slight difference in that her face is rather green from fur, but Zeynab could tell that she was at least the slightest bit concerned about the alcohol she had, based on how her face reacted when her eyes looked at the two food items on the plastic mat, and how she stuttered a bit at the same time. Obviousness takes away the possibility that Shift reacted to the bread and butter, so it was clear it was the vodka. Man, Trina might as well have had a full other name, 'Trina Holmes' but TRINA was already a full abbreviation so it would've been weird.

.........."US law 'khas it that people under the federal'nyi age may apply to a waiver, if deemed that alcohol may not affect them. I have my waiver certificate in my plastic bag poop department, because the bureau thinks I cannot get drunk from alcohol since I'm all robot under the neck," she said with much glee. She lifted and then put down the bottle that had cyrillic written all over it, with no English. "Gawunvodka Aşgabat, Dve Tisyachi Dvadtsat', sorok protsent. Ashgabat Melon Vodka, year 2020, 40%. Really low for me, actually," she translated and proclaimed.

..........Truth be told, she was there mainly to rest a while, take her mind off what she had always thought of, and go back to Lviv, where she used to also do the same at a place similar to that, just not so urbanised, and much colder. What she has been thinking of? Well, same old. What used to be, to her, a year ago, herself before the fishing boat incident of 1961. She even had her usual nightmare of getting sentenced to a gulag in Yakutia for the entering of enemy territory. All this, she wanted and needed to expel. The Titan Tower was pretty quiet and dim and empty, so she did the alternative of going just there. But, ah, well, Athena wouldn't have known. Plus, she would've made a great contribution to keeping her mind off stuff


words: 581 tag: Athena 'Shift' Logan

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Quiet amazement at watching Zeynab move was nothing compared to listening to the woman talk. She knew half a dozen languages, and peppered her speech with all of them. And her accent didn't make understanding her easier, although that was certainly not something Shift was going to fault her for - she, herself, didn't know more than a few words in other languages, including a couple of alien ones, and she could only speak English fluently. The redhead sounded cheerful enough, so Shift took it as good, and she'd definitely heard her codename in there.

"Sure, thanks." She agreed, and stepped onto the blanket. It was big enough for TRINA and another two people, if they were comfortable being close to one another, so the green Titan had more than enough room to sit comfortably. Even sitting, the Russian time-traveler loomed over Athena. She would have loomed over nearly everyone, for that matter, and Shift was only average height. Closer, and human, now, she could smell the heavy scent of lots of metal and little human; it didn't quite put her on edge, thanks to all of her time spent around other, semi-mechanical humans, but it made something inside of her uneasy. Perhaps it was the animal in her, closer to the surface than in most humans, that disliked the smell - but then again, Shift herself was all thumbs when it came to technology, almost infamously so in superhero circles. The exploding toaster incident came to mind.

TRINA had noticed her uneasiness about the vodka, and had definitely come prepared. She even seemed excited about it - testing her limits, seeing if she really could get buzzed from vodka. Surprise certainly showed on the shape-shifter's face, but she couldn't help it; who knew there were waivers for such things? TRINA had, apparently. Then she brandished the bottle in Athena's direction, and she squinted, eyes trying to read the unfamiliar text - it was no use, and the letters swam in her vision, markings that looked like they should mean something but that her brain couldn't parse.

"Oh, I got'cha. Didn't know they did that." She murmured, then spoke louder, at normal volume. "Alright, I guess nobody could fault you for it, then, huh? You ever tried margaritas? They don't, uh, have quite the same kick as vodka, but they're tastier." It might not have been normal to talk to a younger superhero about drinking recommendations, but then it was hardly normal for one of them to be a furry, abnormally-colored shape-shifter and the other to be a 90% robot powerhouse from the past. It made the conversation look downright banal in comparison.

It didn't occur to the Titan leader to put together the facts; Zeynab had come, alone, and brought her own food and drink. She hadn't been expecting anyone, even if she was open to anyone showing up. It was entirely possible she'd just wanted to sit down, get quietly buzzed on her homelands' iconic drink, and forget about what had brought her to Jump City in the first place. Shift might, if she thought about it later, piece together those facts - but the odds were slim, and TRINA seemed happy, anyway.

words: 533 | tagged: @trina

[Deleted]

...........TRINA had a very nice look at Shift, during and after she had a round of talk. Happy Shift was to sit down next to her on the plastic-bag blanket, and happy TRINA was to have one whom she knew join her in this quaint picnic. She went back to sitting down, leaving a bit of grass in front of the mat with a dent of some sort from her own weight. And some girls in the east coast USA think they're heavy. As far as TRINA could tell, Shift hadn't much of a concern about alcohol at that point, after she explained to her about the waiver and whatnot, so things were good to go.

..........Zeynab did a small rub of the ziplock bag in between her rather large index finger and thumb of her right hand. With a little bit of trouble doing so whilst opening it, she managed to do, and inside were 10 separate sandwiches, all plain bread and salted butter. She then grabbed one, chomped it down in two bites. "Ya önder. Tak smachno, tak dobre, maslom khlib," she exclaimed when it went all the way down through the processing and dispersal chambers that replaced her digestives. Soon, she was to gesture Athena to take some, right before offering her something else.

..........She then grabbed hold of the bottle of melon vodka, pulling off the metal cap with another hand. She placed the cap upside down in front of Shift, and poured some into it. It became obvious what TRINA was doing. Using the cap as a shot glass, and letting Shift taste some sweet, sweet Turkmen communism. Well, to be fair, Turkmenistan, from what she had read, is now very uncommunist. Sure, there was apparently a period between independence and 2021 when there was a sort of dictatorship, but from then on, it was all the American Dream.

..........She took an entire swig of vodka directly from the bottle. She was lucky that her tongue survived. The usual mellow and mild sting of vodka, couple with the sweetness from world-class muskmelon from Ashgabat that was infused into the brew and also mixed into the finished vodka before shipment. It was bliss, but she didn't get drunk at all even though the swig took an eight of the bottle. Explainable. She was living in the Soviet Union where some vodkas exceed 60% so 40% was rather fine for her.

..........Soonafter, though not drunk, she did something that was rather bizarre and somewhat gross, and that would've pulled more eyes right at her if there were anybody around. She swung open the compartment at her belly. At first, only a piece of paper was visible, but then she removed it and placed in onto the mat. Left in it was a smartphone and a specialised plastic bag in which a mixture of 'processed' bread and butter and vodka were slowly dropping into. She laughed and said "Hey, look! I'm shitting! as she pointed at it, and then closed the compartment door. TRINA was weird.


Words: ~510 Tag: Athena 'Shift' Logan

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Shift could only dent the ground she stepped on when she weighed much, much more than she did - and it was usually a form that had tusks. She knew people who ranged from 'looks like a twig but could snap you in half with their pinky finger' to...well, people like Zeynab, who looked nearly as strong as she was. Which was something they would need to test at some point, sparring, but it wasn't pressingly important - not on a day as nice as the one they were having, with simple, neat sandwiches and hardly vodka.

The conversation, on the other hand, was a little one-sided. "Uhh...what? I don't..." Understand, she was about to say. Thankfully, TRINA's gesture was universal enough to get the idea across, so Shift nabbed one of the sandwiches, thankful her faux-black-leather gloves were pretty easy to clean, because she bit into slightly more neatly than the redhead had, though not by much. The sandwiches were good, even for something so plain as literal bread-and-butter. she was glad to have something on her stomach when she took the offered cap-shot of the melon vodka - its' name might be unpronounceable, but she could feel the alcohol in it, sure enough, from the tips of her rather pointed ears to her furry feet.

"Oh, my God -- what's this stuff made out of? Ambrosia and turpentine?" The Titan demanded after she'd made a rasping gasp-like sound, coughed, and shook her head, passing the cap back only to see Zeynab take a swig directly from the bottle. Someone likes to live dangerously!, she thought. She would have bet money that the drink hadn't had time to affect Zeynab yet, but the shape shifter might have regretted her bet, had she been able to somehow see what was coming. Unfortunately, physic powers were not her forte, so the Titan had to settle for being surprised as anyone else would be when the newest heroic recruit opened her...chest cavity? Stomach area?...whatever, and - ah, there was that paper she'd been talking about, neatly moved out of the way.

Usually, looking at another teammates' innards meant that her day had taken a very bad turn somewhere along the line; this time, it was more disgusting than actually upsetting. For a split second, Shift wondered why TRIN stored her phone inside her body, but then realized that as a walking suit of armor - so to speak - the other heroine really didn't have anywhere to put pockets. And then Zeynab made her exclamation and Athena laugh-choked on the sandwich in her mouth, quickly swallowing so she could laugh without the threat of asphyxiation-by-picnic-food. Giggles working their way out of her system, the shape shifter leaned over and gently hit TRINA's shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Man, that is weird. You're pretty cool, Zeynab!" She grinned, the too-sharp-to-be-entirely-human teeth in her mouth revealed as the dark green woman did so.


words: 485 | tagged: @trina