13945/To the Irredeemable

To the Irredeemable
Date of Scene:	23 January 2023
Location:	The Curio
Synopsis:	Lydia and Phoebe reconnect at the Curio. Some uncomfortable conversation is avoided, but it only gets worse from there.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Lydia Dietrich

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Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The Curio used to be a building in Hell's Kitchen. Somehow it wandered its way over to Gotham City. No one was really questioning it, no one wanted to question it, because decent occult bars in the area were hard enough to find, and the general assumption from Those In The Know were that it decided to move on account of angels being jerks.

    Either way, it was playing 1930's jazz standards tonight, and between the clientelle who look like backups for a Cure look-alike contest, D&D Enthusiasts who take it FAR too seriously and Daft Punk sitting over there in the corner and the sort of folks who stumble in, it's actually not a bad place.

    Phoebe is down on the main level, occupying a table, with a penlight over her ear so that she's not casting light everywhere as she works over a thick leather-bound book, taking notes in middle Egyptian as she goes.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia was in Gotham to visit her silversmith. She had been commissioned to make an anti-love charm and she was here to pick up the final design. It was far more complicated than what her nascent skills would allow, so she had outsourced the work.

    Happy with the result, she's decided to visit the Curio. She hadn't been in it since it resided in Hell's Kitchen, and curiosity had gotten the better of her. Once inside she finds that she fits right in with her soft gothic look.

    Spying Phoebe here is a pleasant surprise. She'd been meaning to check up on the teen despite the JLD's non-contact order. Phoebe was a friend, and just because she made a disastrous mistake it doesn't mean she should end her friendship with her. Lord knows, she's made her own disastrous mistakes herself.

    "Is this seat taken?" she asks when she walks up to her. "It's been a while. How you've been doing?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe looks up. Other than her much shorter hair and the addition of a strangely wide silk choker, she looks like the same young mage from their last encounter, though she seems a little brighter. Her lips perk up into a smile, and her nose gives a little crinkle as she motions to the chair across from her.

    "Lydia! Great to see you -- how goes it?" she questions, closing her notebooks and setting one in her backpack. "Been a while."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia gracefully slides into the chair opposite that of Phoebe. "It has! Things are going surprisingly good. My book is selling like gangbusters, and there's some grumbling about optioning it off as a movie, which I don't know how I feel about. It's nice to have enough of my own money to be able to pay rent without having to rely on my parent's wealth. Have you had a chance to read it yet? You're in it."

    She leans back in her chair and settles her hands in her lap as her tone turns a bit serious. "Did you know that Batman came and visited the JLD to threaten us to stay away from Gotham? Honestly, none of us ever considered operating here without consulting him first anyway. We all respect him and know that he's more than capable of handling whatever is thrown his way. I mean, the man beat up an archangel, for God's sake."

    Her lips pull into a frown. "I was also warned to stay away from you," she says dourly. "Not by Batman. By Nettie. Well, this is what I think of that. You're still my friend and a trusted colleague. I'm not going to cut that off just because some old crone told me to."

    "So, how about you? How have you been holding up?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I've... actually stayed away from the book after learning that some of the characters were inspired by real events." Phoebe admits quietly, her shoulders rising up a little bit. "There's a lot of things I'm still working through with the last year and a half," she explains, her fingers twitching a moment as she brings her left hand up to brush against her throat thoughtfully, and she gives a small smile.

    "Don't doubt that he did. After Nightwing, Red Robin, Zatanna, Meggan and Sara showed up where I ran away to he's been a little antsy about me running away again to not deal with my anxieties, and part of that was asking me to stay away from the Justice League Dark. He and Red Robin feel that I'm not... really ready to go back to it yet." she waves down a waitress, who brings a menu over to them. Phoebe herself just has Sprite. The ol' Standby.

    "... oh... well..." Phoebe winces a moment. "... learning how to drive. Someone started to get aggressive to my guardian, so I kinda launched myself over the car and kicked their jaw."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods sympathetically. "Fair enough. Still, there's a signed copy waiting for you if you want one. If nothing else, it'll look good on your bookshelf, and will be a great conversation piece for your kids, should you ever decide to have any."

    "Yeah. I hope he doesn't get upset that I see you from time to time," Lydia says. "I do //not// want to deal with an upset Batman. He scares the hell out of me, and at this point I don't scare easily." She picks up and peruses the menu, and decides to order a side of tots and a Manhattan. Her ol' standby.

    "Learning to drive! How fun! Going to get your motorcycle license while you're at it? It'll be good to kill two birds with one stone."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Let's not talk about how I've been riding a motorcycle for two years on a faked license." Phoebe gives a small grin, rubbing the back of her head. "Batman will hear it and then I'll get read the riot act again!" she protests, and she gives a smile. "And he understands, the friendship I mean. I generally operate with the assumption that he Knows and chooses to only act if it's in my best interest." Phoebe states, and she breathes out.

    "I mean, he wanted me to pull out and recover before..." she trails off a moment, and then she taps her glass with her nails, currently quite fancy and gel-coat gunmetal gray except her ring fingers, which are bright flame red.

    "... but it's not like members of the JLD Stay Away. Michael I was driving to a hotel near Robinson Park. And Robbie and I have been... hanging out a lot." she gives a small smile there. "Misery loves company, I guess."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia chuckles at that. "Always the rebel, you." She nods. "It's a reasonable assumption, one that I go by. I'm pretty sure he knows I stop by from time to time, since I'm pretty hard to miss."

    Always one for juicy gossip, a sly smile plays on her lips. "You and Robbie, hunh?" She leans forward resting her arms on the table and laces her fingers together. "Tell me more."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Tch, hardly. Before I was... before I lived in New York I almost never made waves." Phoebe reflects quietly, "I was pretty boring, in fact, pretty much lived in Tim's basement and there were like, weeks at a time that I didn't leave." Phoebe points out. The Waitress brings the manhattan and the tots.

    "He knows everyone who stops in to see me. Most of the time? He doesn't care, as long as I'm not being dragged out of Gotham to journey into the Astral or being pushed into hunting. Red Robin gets a little more antsy. My guardian asked to come along on some local tasks. We had giant cellar-spiders with upside-down human heads projecting women in period clothing on the Amusement Mile a few months ago that would drown people."

    Pheobe's ears had darkened, and she pointedly does not mention Robbie again.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Well. You're not boring now," Lydia says pointedly, like that was a good thing. "Really, you're one of the more interesting people I know. She reaches out for the tots and squirts a bit of ketchup off into a corner of the plate, and scootches it to the middle of the table. "Feel free to have some. I'm only going to have a couple." With that, she takes one, dips it in the ketchup and pops it into her mouth.

    She shudders, "Eugh. Spiders. That sounds positively horrible. Were there many webs? I can't stand spiderwebs."

    

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I'm not that interesting. I'm like, six trauma disorders in triple-weave kevlar." Phoebe points out, and does in fact help herself to the tots, dipping one in ketchup.

    "No webs. Just a trio of spiders under a cloaking spell of some kind. It was really unnerving. Had a couple of other people who showed up to help, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been." she replies quietly.

    "Just sorta nightmareish."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "I don't know how you think that isn't interesting," Lydia says. "It may not be the //good// kind of interesting, but it's still interesting. Besides, you sell yourself short. You're much more than you're trauma. You're a caring, beautiful young woman," Lydia says with parental pride. "Smart //and// clever. Dedicated. The list goes on."

    She frowns and nods. "Yeah. Nightmarish. Sounds like it. I know a thing or two of nightmares," she says recalling her most recent one... the one of Viscera. "I'm glad I don't get nightmares anymore."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I wish I didn't." Phoebe states, but she seems to wilt a little as she looks up to Lydia.

    "I'm not all that, though, Lydia. I'm just... I'm a work in progress and need to give myself time to work through things." she recites, and then wrinkles her nose and gives a *scowl*.

    "... but, yeah. I still have a lot of stuff to work through. Only recently that I've been able to go out by myself at night without a constant monitor. They worry about me."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "We're //all// works in progress," Lydia states. "I'm still dealing with becoming a monster." Her voice lowers so it doesn't carry throughout the bar, "Do you know how many people I murdered? Sixteen. This doesn't count the four that I..." She shakes her head, visibly trying to hide the disgust she feels about herself. "I //mangled//. I have to live with these things on my conscience and no amount of penitence will remove the stain from my soul."

    She lets out a despondent sigh, and straightens up in her seat. "I worry about you, too." she says. "I'm glad you have such capable and caring people who look out for you, so I worry less, and I'm glad you've gotten to the point to where you're out on your own, now."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe's quiet. She looks to her hand a moment, and then draws her gaze to Lydia's face.

    And she turns her face away, looking out over the thinning crowd of the Curio.

    "I have a lot of people looking out for signs that it's going to get bad again." she replies softly, and she taps her hands against the table, and then grabs another tater tot.

    "Who do you have looking out for you right now?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia just looks... sad, really. Weary. It's clear her experience with the Old Ones had taken its toll on her.
    
    "Nobody, really." she says, sounding awfully lonely. "I drove all my friends away with what I'd done. Clarice is the only one who still talks to me but..." she shakes her head. "The distance is there."

    Her jaw visibly clenches as she tries to swallow her emotions, and she reaches out for another tot to angrily dip it into the katchup. "It's all that I deserve," she concludes, popping the tot into her mouth."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... from what I understand from one of my teammates, you were dealing with something much, much bigger than yourself." Phoebe points out, and she tilts her head back, her dark eyes looking up at the pink and green neons that light up behind the art deco counter of the main bar.

    "I made the decision to rob everyone of their memories because I didn't want them to hurt when I inevitably did something stupid. I didn't have anything whispering in my ear or giving me the idea." she states, drawing up another tater tot.

    "Out of everyone from the Night Brigade, you're the only one who's still around to talk to me."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "But I was the one who chose to kill my humanity to pass one of the Velvet Room's trials," Lydia counterargues. "The deaths that came before Viscera were all my doing. I willingly let the Predator take control, and in doing so, it made me weak to the Old One's control."

    She shakes her head. "And even then, all Viscera did was bring out some dark desires that had already been there on some level." She sighs, and plays with her glass, "Sure it twisted them beyond recognition, but on some level it was still me."

    "We both made horrible mistakes," she says, staring at her Manhattan before taking a gulp of it, "and we're both paying the price for them. There are still people out there who are living with the changes that I gave them while I had Viscera's power." She looks up and gives Phoebe a wan smile. "Granted, most of those are trans people whom I gave new bodies to. After the Predator was burned from me, but before I gave up Viscera's power, I went back to each of them, warning about Viscera's possible corruption. They all decided they'd rather live their true lives and risk the corruption rather than remove the changes I had done to them."

    She lets out a small sigh. "So, now I have a little more than a dozen people that I have to keep an eye on to make sure that Viscera influence doesn't mutate their bodies. Or worse, use them to get another foothold into this realm."

    "And for those I murdered..." she shakes her head. "They were all bad men. Easy to rationalize their deaths, but I'm too much of a coward to face their families to let them know their fate." A bitter laugh escapes her. "I couldn't recover their bodies even if I wanted to. They're all floating out there in orbit. I still have the teleportation circle that I used up on the roof of my apartment building. I know I should destroy it but I keep thinking you never know when you're going to need to send something into space."

    She scowls. "I've been tempted to use myself. To just... remove myself from the earth. It wouldn't kill me. I don't need to breathe after all, and the cold doesn't bother me, but the constant sunlight would make my unlife miserable."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Space is overrated anyway." Phoebe mutters crossly, and she then just brings her sprite glass over, and tinks it against the manhattan's glass.

    "To the Irredeemable Monsters just trying to make it through after trying to drive everyone away like assholes." she states in a toast.

    And she downs the rest of her sprite.

    "Someday I'll walk about the other things I did. But... not tonight. That's a nightmare for another day." she states, and then she pauses, and her dark eyes flick back to Lydia.

    "And that is one thing I will always carry differently from Batman." she states, and she takes out a crisp fifty dollar bill to leave on the table to cover both their tabs.

    "When I killed, I did it without remorse, because the world was better off without him."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia raises her glass in solidarity, "To Irredeemable Monsters." She tosses back the Manhattan, and sets the glass on the table, sucking in a breath.

    "When you get to the point to where you want to talk about those things," she says, "I'll be here to listen without judgement. You have my number, and my home is always open to you."