2012-09-28 Secrets Revealed

Life has been a little hectic since Donna last spoke to Kyle. She finally got the call he had told her about though. As promised, she made the trip to the Museum to sign the papers as needed.

It was simply a matter of asking to be shown where she needed to go. There's a casual confidence to the young woman dressed in white, bootcut business slacks, a purple silk cami with a single button dress jacket, which was buttoned by the way, worn over it.

Her camera case and a purse are hung on one shoulder, the weight seeming to sit on her effortlessly. Shimmering black hair has been slightly curled so it falls in thick waves down her back.

Usually, office space means you're someone important. Kyle's office, however, is barely more than a small room with just enough room for a desk and two chairs, and a narrow, frosted window. It may once have been a storage closet, but apparently it's still a mark of status for a Met artist to have his own workspace.

"No, no. I'm- yes, I wish I could, but I-" Kyle is clearly having an argument with someone. His voice floats into the 'work area' behind the museum exhibit itself. "I have at least one more artist to speak with. Yeah. Yessir. I'll call you back." He sees Donna wandering down the hallway and leans out the door to flag her down, hand on his phone. "Hey," he whispers at her. He invites her in and moves back into the office, settling down at his desk. "Yes. I will call you back. Bye."

One can't help but look at the art while making their way through a museum. It's just not possible. When Donna sees her own work on display, she has to take a moment to stop and stare. It still seems surreal to her. Her head is given a little shake before she spots Kyle waving at her.

She fingers a finger wiggle type wave in return to his greeting, not wanting to interrupt the phone call. Following him into the office, she takes a seat and waits until he has finished his phone call before speaking. "Hello to you too, by the way. Busy day so far?"

"That's putting it very mildly," Kyle says, flicking his fingers in a gesture of irritaiton. The artist is surprinsgly well heeled today, with new shoes and an orange and white plaid shirt in subtle colors. He reaches over and across Donna in the cell-like room and swings the door shut, the sounds of the museum suddenly shut out. The matching jacket to his new deep olive green dress pants hangs on a hook behind him. "The Director of the Gotham Art Institute wants me to bring the exhibit over there. He's /trying/ to get me to cut the exhibit here short, and he's trying to bribe me outrageously to do it." He spreads his hands in a gesture of frustration, sitting back in his worn office chair.

Donna blinks as the door is shut before a brow arches. "Really?" She blinks several more times. "That's... Wow. Damn. I suppose if he wants it there bad enough, he'll be willing to shut up and do it on your terms or realize he won't get it all." At that, Donna offers a bit of a smirk.

She relaxes back into the seat and can't help but grin. "You also sound like you need coffee." Yes, that's Donna's answer to /everything/! Coffee makes the world better. "Any idea what you're going to do?"

"No," Kyle admits. "For one, Gothan isn't exactly a cultural haven. He's not interested in the artwork; he's trying to get more funding for his museum by stealing a great exhibit." Kyle rubs his brow. "And I'm not comfortable about bringing all the pieces over to Gotham for security reasons. I have a bid on one of the James' pieces, and two of yours have placeholder bids in for, uh, /substantial/ amounts of money." He slumps back in his seat. "And Gotham will not guarantee security or help cover our increased insurance costs."

Donna listens to all of this and, slowly, her brows raise higher and higher until they've almost reached her hairline. "I see. That's rather assinine of them." Of course, then what he said sinks in and her head tilts because, well, her eyebrows just can't rise any higher. "Part of me wants to ask how substantial and the other is urging me to just sign the papers..." Her smile turns sympathetic. "Look, Kyle, if you aren't comfortable moving the artwork then don't. I know I'd rather my work not head that way."

"Well, that's helpful. Now I can tell me all of the coontributing arists declined to relocate to Gotham, and I can negotiate an extended stay here at The Met." He grins at Donna, looking substantially relieved. "It was... a good amount," he admits. "A lot more than we'll probably make extending the exhibit here. I just don't think that catering to Gotham's social elite is worth the risk. Too many weirdo villains living in the city who like attacking artwork." He smiles at her warmly. "I appreciate the vote of confidence."

Donna can't help but laugh. "Well, I do aim to please." She offers a smile before shrugging her shoulders. "Glad I could help make things easier for you, Kyle." Her head is shook as he explains how much money will be made on her pieces. "Yeah, just show me the dotted line." She chuckles before returning his smile. "Hey, you've done great watching out for me and it was kind of you to show my work here. I trust until I have a reason not to and the only thing you've done is proven how trustworthy you really are."

"Oh, right, paperwork." Kyle rummages around and finds a few sheets of paper. "Here- an addendum to the museum contact. An agreement to possibly extend the exhibit at my direction. Aaaand.." he finds the last one. "And authorization to pre-sell pieces prior to the end of the gallery exhibit." He sets them in front of Donna, then offers her a fountain pen to sign it.

Donna chuckles softly, signing each paper as it's presented to her. "It's still very surreal seeming." Once they're all signed, she hands them back to him as well as the pen. "I never expected my photographs to be somewhere like this." She makes a good living working with the magazines but this... A wicked little smile curves her lips. "And I know just what I'm going to do with it..."

"Big plans?" Kyle asks with a quick grin. He countersigns her paperwork in front of her, occasionally blowing on the drying ink. "New car? Plane ticket to Milan?" He gently air-dries their signatures and spreads them out on his narrow desk to let them dry. "You should have a good chunk of change in hand soon. Maybe sooner, if I can get Miss Potts to commit to a pre-purchase amount."

Donna giggles like a school girl for a moment. "A car, yes. New for me but..." Her nose wrinkles. "I hate the truly new cars. I like the old street machines that purr and growl when they're let loose." Someone sounds like a bit of a fan. Or a racer... "Thank you again. For all your hard work and what you're doing for me."

"You earned this, you know," Kyle points out. "I hadn't met you until that day in the park. I... generally avoid socializing with my artists," he says, looking a bit embarassed. "Art should stand on its own. No personalities, no perspectives, no intentions. It's either good, or..." he trails off with an eloquent shrug. "You've got a real gift and a... shining soul. It comes out in your work- studies of light conquering darkness, sunrises, horizons... It's positive stuff. You must have loved the aerial shots you took. Helicopters aren't cheap."

"Helicopter?" There's a split second confusion before Donna realizes her mistake and attempts to cover it. "Oh! Right." She grins and shrugs her shoulders. "I love what I do and the Colliseum is such a spectacular piece of architecture... It deserved to be shown in a way that it's beauty had never been seen before." And then she blushes. "Sorry. I was thinking about the car... Guess I got lost daydreaming a little. Thank you for the compliment. All of them." A piece of hair is tucked back behind her ear and she grins again.

"...what if I said I could help you with those kinds of shots? And it'd cost you a lot less to do it- and you could go anwhere you wanted?" Kyle's intense green eyes latch onto Donna's, earnest and playful. "Aerial shots of the gargoyle's roost on Wall Street. Midnight shots right above Radio City Music Hall. Is... is that something you'd be interested in?"

Donna blinks several times before her blue-green eyes meet his gaze and hold it. "Of course I'd be interested." She regards him carefully a moment before tilting her head off to one side. "I am curious, however, as to how you'd accomplish this and... why..."

Kyle rises and opens the window. It's one of those old institutional ones that's three feet wide and five feet tall, folding sideways over a patio. "Come here, and take my hand," he says, his expression filled with a gamin, boyish expression. He puts one foot outside the window, presumably on the patio ledge.

Oh shit! Shit shit! Donna can't do this. She doesn't use her abilities in this persona!

With a rather dubious look, the woman rises and squirms her way around until she's next to him at the window. "...Kyle..." Her tone has a hint of warning to it but it's more questioning than anything else. "What are you doing?"

"I have /no idea/," Kyle grins. With that, he takes firm hold of her hands and pulls her out of the window!

Except, he's not tripped, and neither of them are falling. A glimmering disc of coherent green light twinkles into existence beneath their feet, and like a moving ski lift elevates them out of the window, then swiftly up into the sky. Kyle seems to be focusing on the disc and on the shimmering green lights that occassionally flicker around them. "Don't worry. No one can see us from the ground." Soon, they're above the majority of civil buildings, and climbing to an altitude where the noises of the city are distant and indistinct.

Despite the fact that she feels no real fear, Donna lets out a shriek and grips his hand a little harder, being ever so careful to control her strength. "What the hell is wrong with yo--" Wait... not falling? She looks down at the green disk and blinks several times.

The bridge of her nose is pinched, as if she can feel a head ache coming on. Something about it is familiar but for some reason, the full memory doesn't come to her like normal. "What is this?"

"Magic," Kyle supplies. "Just... just enjoy it." He grins and helps hold her steady as the disc starts coasting across the skyline. "All of New York. Millions of people." He looks down, the disc moving as steadily as a conveyor belt in an airport terminal. "It's so quiet up here," he remarks, listening to the gentle sussurances of the wind around them.

Donna looks up at him a moment before she looks out over the skyline. She misses flying and being in the air and while she's enjoying it... Something is poking at her, causing her attention to stray from the beauty laid out before her. "So... It comes back to my question of...why?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you'd be impressed by a graphic designer from LA with one nice suit to his name taking you out to Applebee's for a nice dinner and a cheap movie," Kyle quips, grinning. "But, you know- flying trip up into the sky, I figure, if I've got a shot at all with New York's hottest photographer, this'll make it. And if I didn't... well, at least I know I lost out on a date with Donna Troy to a guy who could top a /personal flight/ over New York."

Donna blinks several times as Kyle's words sink in. Her cheeks flare a bright pink and she motions to one of the buildings. "Can we have this conversation somewhere where I'm not hundreds of feet up in the air, please?" Maybe she's scared of heights? "And, just for the record, you'd be surprised at what I find impressive."

"Ok. Hang on- I don't have this flying thing down perfectly yet." The acceleration isn't perfectly smooth, but in short order Kyle has them alighting on top of Radio City Music Hall, just under the big neon lights that stand thirty feet high. He hangs his feet over the edge of the room, letting the sun shine on his face. "So, what /do/ you find impressive, Miss Troy?" he asks with a playful insouciance.

Donna watches the man who has quickly become a friend to her. "I suppose... The mundane." She thinks for a moment. "Waking up to someone cooking me waffles in the morning... A camping trip... A simple cup of coffee..."

The more she speaks, the more her voice softens and her eyes take on a far away look. "In the mall, I told you I don't have a boyfriend. It wasn't a lie." Her eyes refocus and turn their attention on Kyle once more. "He's my very best friend. He's the one that makes me feel safe. The one I can share absolutely anything with. Everything moves in harmony with him."

She won't say it but the look on her features and the way her voicce remains soft... It says enough. She's in love with whoever she's talking about. "So you see... Technically, I'm unattached but..." Yeah, because that all makes perfect sense.

"...Yeah." Kyle smiles, in an unhappy way, and nods a few times. "You feel right around him. Like everything makes sense. And no matter how bad it gets, you know, you can always rely on him to be there for you." Kyle sounds like a man repeating a series of axioms that have been dictated to him on several occassions. "Yeah. I, uh... well. I feel kind of stupid, but no one's ever told me I did things by halves." He grins at something in the distance and wraps his forearms around his knees. "I have to admit, though, this is about the best 'thanks but no thanks' I've ever recieved. Much better than that time I painted a mural out of a girl's dorm tower to get her attention, and she left me for a second-string quarterback."

Donna laughs softly. "No. Nothing makes sense around Tim. Quite the contrary, actually."

For a moment, Donna frowns before leaning in to give Kyle a gentle hug. "Don't. Please? You have no idea how flattered I am, Kyle." She gives her head a little shake. "And believe me... I'm not the kind of girl you want to get mixed up with. There's... a lot of things about me you don't know. I'm not... normal."

"Donna, if I'm not mistaken, I just /flew you across Manhatten/," Kyle gently points out. "I can't imagine you're much weirder than that." He certainly doesn't push her away in the hug, making room for her to sit next to him if she likes. "I... look, I mean, I don't know much about New York. I've been here only a few weeks. It sounds like it might turn into a lot longer than that. And what can I say, I have a weakness for attractive photographers," he says, with another one of those damnably boyish grins.

She hates that she seems to have hurt her new friend... And the only way she knows to even begin to make it better is the one thing she's been avoiding for weeks now.

With a deep breath, Donna steps off of their perch and simply walks out into the air. She takes four or five steps before turning to look back at him. "My name is Donna Troy. I once went by the name of Troia. My sister is Wonder Woman. Within my mind, I hold the memories of all of my alternate lives because there is more than just this reality."

Kyle seems to take that pretty well. It only takes him a minute or two to process that. "You know, I could take an /amazing/ forced perspective shot of you," he says, defaulting to quips. He mimes a camera, then grins at her. "You know, if you'd done that... two weeks ago, I think I would have run off screaming. As is, I feel a bit better knowing I'm at least attracted to a girl who is possibly as weird as I am. Weirder. My brother's not Superman, at least as far as I know."

"I'm... Well, I say I'm broken... I don't sleep because I have nightmares of what I've done in other lives. As Troia, I left a path back to those I care about the most. I was never born but rather, I was created from a piece of Wonder Woman's soul. I was bred a warrior and raised by beings who would one day turn me into a weapon..." She watches his reactions as she 'walks' back over and sits down.

"Hey. I made it through /grad school/," Kyle says with a flip sort of grin. "So, you know, you can't be any more dark and twisted than I am. I had to do some things I'm not proud of to get through UCLA. But... Donna, we're /all/ broken," he tells her. "In some ways. Van Gogh was stark raving mad, but his work inspires and continues on. Hurt gives artists hope, and hope gives our art weight. And I've seen your photography. It's... remarkable." He invites her to sit as she wanders back towards horizontal space. "And it's full of hope."

"When was the last time you helped destroy an entire world, Kyle?" A brow arches over at him as she takes a seat before she offers a smile. "Thank you. It means a lot to me that people see that in my work. I never really saw it as such but if that's what others take from it then... Even though I don't use my abilities anymore, I can still do some good."

She's silent a moment before she looks over at him. "C'mon, Kyle. Let's go grab some coffee. There's a nice place that Tim and I frequent." She grins and pushes herself up. "You're still a friend. And I still trust you."

"Friendzoned." Kyle mimes an arrow to the heart. "Oh well. I promise I'm not going to mope and pine after you. Did that my junior year of college- never again." He looks around the skyline once more, then gives her an affectionate chuck on the shoulder. "Hey- make you a deal, though." He abruptly leaps off the side of the building, and with a roaring sound, jets off into the skyline. "Last one to Sardi's buys!" His flight is a bit erratic, but /fast/. And he cheated with his head start.

Donna blinks before rolling her eyes and facepalming. "Oh my God." She looks down at the ground below her and then the surrounding area. "I don't use my abilities any more I said... I know I did..." This is all muttered as she spots some place she can touch down without being seen by people. Which is precisely what she does, all the while mentally plotting ways to maim her new friend and muttering about them.

There's a roaring sound, and Kyle's jet-booted propulsion hovers him over Donna. "I'll float like this above you the /whole way/ if you don't get up here and race me!" he calls down to her as she lands and tries to sneak off.

Donna winces and looks up. "Kyle! Hush!" she hisses though it is somewhat playful. "Donna Troy doesn't use those abilities anymore. Ever." Except in the previous instance. "Now be good and get down here." Oh yes. She's going to kill him. Several times!

"Fine." Kyle descends a bit wobbily, and hits the ground with a heavy thump. "Ok. Still don't have that down." He starts walking along with her towards SoHo. "So why does Donna Troy go around pretending she can't fly? Or, um, I'm guessing bench press cars. I mean, you're certainly not passing up that Grecian heritage of good looks," he points out, a bit archly.

Donna can't help but shake her head. "Grecian heritage of... What?" She really is clueless about her looks.

A piece of hair is tucked behind her ear as they walk. "I told you I once went by the name Troia. I never wore a mask. I was clear path back to those I care about... I decided they weren't worth that risk so... I quit."

"That's... huh." Kyle shakes his head. "See, I wear a mask. At least when I'm out... uh... fighting crime, I guess, they call it," he hedges. "I read the comic books like all the other kids growing up. Seemed stupid not to do that. Make sure my friends or girlfriends or whatever don't end up getting used to get to me." He looks down at the glistening green ring on his right hand. "Seems like, I have this power, now. It'd be irresponsible if I /didn't/ use it."

"I didn't have the comic books and movies and the like growing up..." There's a touch of sadness to Donna's voice. "And you should learn to pay closer attention to words, Kyle... I said Donna Troy doesn't use those abilities..." A brow arches over at him. "Every superhero has a duel identity, right?" Yeah, she's read a few comics lately.

The two make their way to the coffee shop and enjoy a cup of coffee before calling it a night and parting ways.