Thalia Grace (wasatree) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-05-10 09:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, diana prince / wonder woman, thalia grace |
WHO: Diana Prince and Thalia Grace
WHERE: State Park camping grounds
WHEN: May 10
WHAT: Thalia and Diana go camping, but Thalia’s skills aren’t what they used to be
RATING: G
STATUS: log; complete.
The ground in the park was still damp from the recent rain, but Thalia didn’t mind. She’d camped in much more difficult conditions than this, both as a runaway and as a Hunter. A bit of moisture didn’t bother her. It was a lovely day for a camping trip otherwise, with the sun dappling through the trees and the smell of fresh air all around her. Her kid brother was back, after a round trip through the Tesseract, and they were back to fighting over the remote and living space. Life was good. “I was thinking,” she said to Diana as she idly whittled an arrow shaft from a dry piece of wood she’d found, “there are a bunch of people here who’d be interested in learning archery. Graham was going to have some sort of store where people can buy supplies and learn, but then he disappeared. Doesn’t mean it can’t still be done, though.” "It would be difficult," Diana said carefully. "Only because there aren't many places in the city to properly set up a range. I suppose we could use a large gymnasium, but it wouldn't be right to try Central Park. Of course, regular trips out here are also acceptable." She wished she had her own bow and arrows, but she hadn't had them with her when she'd come through the Tesseract. She hadn't had quite a few of the things she wished she did. "But acceptable." She smiled at the younger girl and nodded. "It is a good sport to pursue, as I know you know as well." Thalia smiled back, glad for the approval. She was going to do go ahead and do it whether Diana agreed or not, but it was nice to get validation from someone she admired as much as Diana. “Exactly,” she said. “And now that I actually have a car -” The car being the old restored Ford Fairlane she shared with Luke and had driven here in today “- it’ll be easier to come here whenever we want.” Finally satisfied with shaft, she fixed the arrowhead to it and tested out its weight and balance. “I think this’ll do. Wanna try it out?” Diana leaned over to look carefully at what Thalia had worked out and nodded approvingly. "Wonderful work," she said with a light smile. "Why don't I set up a target for you and we'll see what happens." She walked off toward a nicely sized tree and used a sharp stone to make a mark on it then stepped away. "Try and hit it here," she said. The mark was small and barely visible among the thick bark of the oak tree, but Thalia smirked. At this close a range, aiming for a stationary target, she wasn’t going to miss. She’d hunted serpents that moved so fast they could barely be seen, and she’d gotten an exploding arrow up the nostril of a Hyperborean giant. An oak tree was nothing. “Got it,” she said, and she drew back her bow to sight the target. It felt a little odd in her hands, but she didn’t think much of it - at least until she released the arrow. It flew right past the tree, almost a foot wide, and disappeared into the brush. Thalia almost dropped her bow, she was so startled. She’d missed. How could she have missed? It was a giant target that was standing still, for the gods’ sake! This was a shot she could have taken blindfolded and on one foot. And she’d missed. Diana always enjoyed watching an eager archer show off her skills, and she turned to watch the tree, but the arrow didn't hit. She frowned, momentarily, glancing at Thalia, and then went to fetch the arrow. "It's a new arrow," she said softly, handing it back to Thalia. "The weight is different, of course. Why don't you take another shot?" This time, she stood beside Thalia, just a few steps to the right, and watched the younger girl. “Of course,” Thalia repeated, even though she knew it wasn’t the arrow. It couldn’t be. Even if the weight and balance were off, she should’ve been able to compensate for it. But what other reason could there possibly be for the miss? Hunters didn’t miss - not on such easy shots like that. It had to be her bungling the arrow. That had to be it. She started to reach for it to give it another try, then stopped. If the problem were with the arrow, trying again wouldn’t change anything. Best she could do was adjust her aim accordingly, and even if she did hit the mark, she’d still have a defective arrow. But at least she’d know it was just the arrow. She took the arrow and aimed once more. The first time, it had gone a little higher and too far to the right. This time, she aimed slightly lower and to the left. The arrow hit the bottom of the tree and bounced off its trunk with a miserable plop. Diana's frown deepened, and she didn't say anything as she went to pick up the arrow again and carry it back to Thalia. She weighed it in her hand then held her hand out for the bow. "May I?" she asked carefully. Normally Thalia was protective of her bow. It had been given to her by Artemis herself, and she didn't like to share it. But it was Diana asking, and at the moment Thalia wasn't doing it justice anyway, so she handed it over. "Yeah," she said, obviously rattled by her uncharacteristically shoddy marksmanship. "Here." Diana smiled and took it, being careful with it because she understood Thalia's attachment to it. She planted herself and set herself up, taking aim, and shooting. Archery had never been her best skill, but it was certainly one of her better ones. She held her breath gently and then shot the arrow, which hit its mark, lodging itself in the tree where she had marked it. She lowered the bow. "Are you feeling all right?" she asked delicately, to Thalia. No, Thalia was far from feeling all right at the moment. Diana had just shown that the problem wasn't with the arrow, or the bow. Which meant the problem was with her. The color had drained out of her face, and for a moment Thalia didn't answer. Couldn't answer. She was frantically trying to come up with an explanation for her sudden lack of marksmanship that didn't have anything to do with her losing her archery prowess permanently. And come to think of it, she'd been feeling a little more tired in the lat few days. Usually, Thalia rarely got tired. Being a Hunter gave her more energy and endurance than even demigods had, and she hadn't felt physically exhausted in a long time - certainly since fighting Gaea's giants. But lately, she'd felt a little under the weather. She'd attributed it to the roller coaster of emotions that accompanied Jason's disappearance and reappearance, but was it really the case? Thalia wasn't sure anymore, and that was terrifying. Belatedly realizing that Diana was still waiting for an answer, Thalia tried to tamp down the rising panic. "Um...yeah," she said, entirely unconvincingly. "I've just been...I've just been a little under the weather." She forced a laugh. "Maybe I finally caught that flu that's been going around. That's probably it." Diana watched her, concerned as she would be with any of her Amazonian sisters, even if Thalia wasn't a true sister in that sense. But blood never mattered much to Diana. "I'm sure that's it," she said. "But perhaps if that's the case, we should take a break from archery and take a walk? The weather is beautiful, of course, and it would be a shame to waste the day." She handed the bow back to Thalia and then went to retrieve the arrow, tugging it out of the tree though she'd lodged it in there nice and good. "You did a wonderful job on this arrow," she complimented. “Thanks,” Thalia said dully. What good was a good arrow, though, if she couldn’t shoot it for beans? It was possible that it was just a temporary thing, and that she was succumbing to the flu that had taken out about half the building, including a bunch of superpowered folks, but what if it wasn’t? What if she’d been away from her own world too long and her powers were eroding? What if, somehow, Artemis had found out about her feelings for Luke? There was no Chiron to ask here for guidance, no one who knew the ways of the gods that could help answer the question. So the best thing to do was take Diana’s advice and just go for a walk and try to forget this had happened. She didn’t think she was actually going to succeed, but she desperately needed some sort of distraction. “But yeah,” she said belatedly, hooking her bow back over her arm. It felt odd there, in a way it never had before. “Let’s go. And...uh...talk about this vampire business. Have you run into one?” Diana shook her head. "No," she said. "I considered going looking for one but I hope SHIELD has it under control. It has been difficult getting used to the idea that I am somewhat unneeded here." "Have you? It probably isn't the same as what you're used to." Diana had done some basic reading on the Olympians series from which Thalia had come, and she understood it a little better. "Yeah, our monsters tend to be bigger and pack more attack power," Thalia confirmed. "I ran into a pack, but they were too fast. Barely got a shot in before they were off." She made a face, fully understanding Diana's feeling of displacement and uselessness. She'd been fighting monsters for so long, she had no idea what to do with herself now that she didn't need to. "It's hard just sitting back and letting other people do the work, isn't it?" she said. "Have you thought about joining SHIELD?" Diana nodded. "I am working for them right now in public relations. My background as ambassador from Themiscyra is ideal for that kind of work, however, I'm unsure about whether or not I approve of the way SHIELD handles things, especially the refugees. There are too many questions left unanswered, perhaps purposefully." But she smiled nonetheless. "It gives me something to do, right now, without my home and true calling available to me here." It seemed strange to Thalia to think of Diana in a PR position, rather than a Run Around And Kick Ass position, but she supposed if that was Diana’s specialty and she liked doing it, someone ought to. “What kind of questions?” Thalia asked. There were definitely questions left unanswered, but she’d been under the impression that it was because no one knew the answers. Although she wouldn’t be too surprised if the top secret organization knew way more than they were telling the refugees. Maybe they might know something about what was causing people to be brought in or taken out, or what had happened to Thalia’s powers. Diana lifted her shoulders momentarily. "All sorts, I suppose, such as why so many come and go and why some never come or what the tesseract is doing. I know that there are a lot of people working on that, including those not with SHIELD, but -- I'm used to knowing more, you understand? With the Justice League, we were involved. I feel particularly useless here." The same questions Thalia had, then, and the same situation she was in. "Yeah, I know what you mean," she said sympathetically. "I wasn't that involved with decision-making back in my world, but at least I was useful." She sighed, unable to stop thinking of her inability to aim. "And I could shoot properly." Diana pursed her lips. "Is there any reason you can think of that you might not be shooting properly anymore?" she asked. There were a few reasons she could think of, naturally, but she didn't want to make any assumptions about Thalia, didn't want to consider that maybe even though Artemis wasn't here and neither were their gods, that consequences were still in effect. Though she couldn't imagine consequences of anything being necessary here. "Do you think it's a matter of not being in your world any longer?" “I don’t know,” Thalia said quietly. If it were a matter of not being in her world anymore, wouldn’t that mean that her other powers would have disappeared? Wouldn’t it mean that the people who’ve been here longer, like Luke and Annabeth, would have started losing their powers? But no - this was the only power loss she knew about. She continued to walk, head bent. Maybe it was just...temporary. Maybe it really was the flu, affecting demigods differently. The possibilities swirled in her mind, shying away from the one scary possibility, and finally she stopped and shook her head. “Sorry, can we do this again another time? I...I don’t think I’m going to be good for anything right now.” Diana stopped as well and looked at her. "Would you like me to take you back, then?" she asked, reaching out to touch Thalia's arm gently. "I can get you back more quickly than driving." "You can?" Surprise momentarily distracted Thalia from her slump. All this time, she'd been driving them here, and here Diana had a faster and easier way. She almost said yes, but then she reconsidered. The car wasn't just hers; Luke might need it tonight, so she shouldn't just leave it in the parking lot. "Maybe next time?" she said. "I should take the car back. And driving might be a good distraction." She squeezed her arm and nodded. "Of course. Do you want to be alone or can I join you on the ride back?" Diana wanted to be able to give Thalia the space she needed, if that was what she wanted. But she wanted it to be her decision. Diana just wished she could help. "I'd appreciate the company," Thalia said with a wan smile. She was okay on her own, but given a choice, she tended to prefer being around people. Besides, having Diana there would keep her from thinking too much about her sudden loss of powers. "Sorry about this," she added. "I'll make it up to you another time." Diana smiled fondly. "You don't have to apologize and you don't have to make anything up. I just wish I could help, somehow. If you need to talk, I've always been very good at listening. Or perhaps we can turn up the radio on the ride back and just enjoy singing along out loud. Sometimes that makes me feel better when I'm down." "Now that's a brilliant idea," Thalia said, her smile a little more genuine this time. "We even have a new stereo system to test out. C'mon. Let's go." |