14078/In the Crowe's Nest

In the Crowe's Nest
Date of Scene:	08 February 2023
Location:	The Crowe's Nest
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Nettie Crowe, Lydia Dietrich

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Nettie Crowe has posed:
    The Candle Booke and Belle was never closed to the Justice League, The Justice League Dark, or the friends of Nettie Crowe.

    On the odd occasion though, it does have a tendency to send people to different floors upon entry. A quirk of the building, Nettie would say, but most of how she describes her sanctum and home is suspect to be half-truths.

    Today, upon entry, there would be a little 'zip!' of steel-blue energy and a drop into someone's grandmother's livingroom. It's pink, and has flowers and art on it. Hand-made afgans line the top of the couch, and some granny squares in progress are near a knitting basket.

    Nettie herself was wearing gray jeans and a T-shirt promoting some venue in the 1980's she frequented, pouring from a bright blue kettle into a teapot. Service for two was set up.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Oh!" Lydia says, looking a little surprised when she ends up here instead of the foyer of the shop. The vampire, herself, is wearing jeans tucked into calf-high leather boots, a cream colored blouse over which a grey woolen peacoat is worn. Over her shoulder is a messenger bag which carries her laptop and other personal belongings and in one hand is a medium sized paper bag just the right size for a loaf of bread.

    "I take it you got my message then," she says, entering the room fully, eyes roaming around the place taking in the sights. "I hope your evening has been pleasant so far. I--" Her eyes stop on the freezer. "I now have an undeniable urge to touch the freezer."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Please do not touch the freezer, that would be a pain in the ass to everyone involved and I *JUST* finished getting all the blood out of the grout." Nettie replies in a friendly fashion as she looks over to Lydia, and gives a smile. "Go ahead and hang your coat on the tree, dear, I'll have some tea right out. Please, fresh my memory -- do you take finger sandwiches, or does it not go with the liquid diet?" she inquire, the diminuitive witch moving around a moment.

    "I do like your boots."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Giving the freezer one last look she turns back to Nettie. "Thank you!" she says brightly, letting go of brown paper bag and messenger bag, just letting them hang there in her starfield. Shrugging off her coat she hangs it up on the tree, and nabs the floating objects out of the air. "I got them on sale. Do you know how hard it is to get a comfortable pair of winter boots like these are? //Impossible// I say. Especially on sale. I couldn't resist."

    As she talks she makes her way over to the table and sets her bags down. From the brown paper bag comes an aromatic fresh loaf of sourdough bread. "Here," she says, sliding it over. "For you. Fresh out of the oven. I had a feeling that I'd end up here. It's been that kind of day."

    She goes and pulls out a seat and sits down in it. "I can have a sandwich, if you've made some," she says. "It doesn't really do anything for me anymore, but that doesn't mean I should be rude."

    She sits there for a moment, watching Nettie for a bit before offering, "So I had a visitor this morning."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Don't I know it. I have a pair of Doc Marten boots that I've had since '86. Just keep getting them resoled. At this point it's a bit like the Boots of Theseus though, 'are these still the original boots if everything has been replaced?'" she questions, setting some cucumber sandwiches with real butter on a plate, and then looks up.

    "Oh my goodness, fresh sourdough? Have I ever mentioned you're my favorite writer?" she questions brightly, accepting the bag and the loaf and greedily looking into it, and taking a deeeeeeep breath. Aaah.

    And then she sets the loaf on the counter.

    "Oh? A visitor? Of what kind?" she inquires as she sets the tea service, and picks up the tray.

    Elizabeth, at that point, makes her way out. The mechanical cat gives a robotic 'miiiawww' and then winds itself against Lydia's ankles.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Not nearly frequently enough," Lydia says smoothing, giving Nettie something of a grin. She takes one of the finger sandwiches and takes a sniff of it, pulling apart what she smells. The cucumber. The water. The butter. The salt. The grain. The yeast. The cutting board. The knife. It's something she's been practicing, this olfactory dissection. You never know what important clue you might miss in the minute details.

    Taking a delicate bite out of the finger sandwich she shrugs. "I don't know," she admits. "It managed to get past the wards and the mezuzah without me noticing. There are very few things in this reality that can achieve that. Not after..." she stops and shakes her head. Best not to think about //it// right now.

    When the mechanical cat comes up to her she looks down and blinks. She should be surprised, but honestly, she isn't. "Well, hello, there," she says reaching down to pet her. Other people might find it strange to be petting something like this but when you've been a foundational member of the Justice League Dark, this is the least of the strangeness that you've encountered.

    "It took the form of my mother," she says, sitting back up. "It was good, too. Had me fooled for a minute. Had her down pat, and if it had just knocked on the door like a normal person, it might have kept fooling me."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Well I should do it more often. Could have a banner printed: 'Lydia's the Best', and then everyone will either think we're an item or that I'm just the world's biggest Beetlejuice fan." she gives a wry smile as she sets down the service on the coffee table, then sits down on the couch. As Lydia deals with the mechanical cat, it purrs happily, vibrating visibly as it does. "That's Elizabeth. A gift from a ... a former student of mine who I had to let go for personal reasons." she states softly. "Elizabeth, that's Miss Lydia, be kind." she reminds the cat, and she pours tea as she listens.

    "Mmm. So some sort of shifter that was able to get around a mezuzah?" she questions.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Well, are either of those such a bad thing?" Lydia asks shooting Nettie a playful grin. Turning her attention back to Elizabeth she nods. "It's a good gift. All the perks of owning a cat without it puking in your shoes."

    She shakes her head. "No. Nothing so conventional as that. Besides, something corporeal would have triggered the wards. Even something teleporting in would have given me //something//." She takes another dainty bite out of the finger sandwich. "But the entire time it was in my apartment my wards stayed silent. All of them."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Depends on if the show comes back to Broadway or not." Nettie replies, and she gives a smile back to Lydia, "Though if you ever need a perk, I'd be happy to have one printed to bring out in case of emergency. Except it'll be on a mid-nineties dot-matrix printer since I think that's the only kind I own." Nettie pauses a moment. "Or I can have young Master Drake print one. He seems technologically inclined enough."

    And then she gives a soft hum, handing one of the tea cups on a saucer -- both with skulls on them. Bone China indeed -- to Lydia.

    "Do you reckon it was something internal then? Shadow of an old one making trouble n your brain?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Well, if it still works, why throw it out?" Lydia says with a chuckle. "Must be a bitch finding paper for it. It's the one with the holes in the sides, right? Oh, thank you," she says gratefully accepting her tea. "Love the cups."

    She takes a sniff of the tea, inhaling its aroma, and picking apart all the parts of it. It's more enjoyable this time, since it's something she used to do with tea back when she was alive. She holds the cup in both hands, letting the warmth sink in, before taking a first sip. It's a practiced ritual for her, has been since she was little. "Mm. This is good."

    "No. Whatever it is it isn't an Old One. My wards would have been //screaming// at me." She closes her eyes and steadies herself, "It couldn't have been a shadow of Viscera, either. We made sure that all traces of it were gone from me before..." Before everybody fucked off and left. She sighs, "Regardless, Viscera was never that subtle."

    "And whatever it was, it wasn't in my head. It was //there//. It picked up one of my dirty socks and threw it in the hamper." She shakes her head. "I went back after it left and checked to make sure it wasn't an illusion or anything, and, yeah, the sock was in the hamper."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie curls up a little, resting her elbows on her knees, her feet -- clad in gray socks -- on the edge of the couch as she frowns a moment.

    "That... is the oddest thing I've ever heard of. An extraordinarily helpful apparition that sets off no wards, doesn't knock, doesn't..." she crinckles her face a moment, nose pinching as she sips her tea.

    "... well, this is one of those moments that I ususally may shrug and say 'well, magic does weird things', but when you're one of the best we have on-hand..." she murmurs. "That's troubling."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Well, to be fair, it //was// impersonating my mother at the time." Lydia says with a smirk. "So it was less helpful and more... disdainful. //Believe// me. If my real mother ever found a dirty sock on the floor I would never hear the end of it."

    "But, I agree. It's troubling." She scowls into her tea before taking a sip of it. "What's more troubling is that I don't know what its motivation for the visit was. We talked for a bit and that's... it. I didn't sense any... hm. I want to say that I didn't sense any malevolence in it, but I don't think that's exactly true."

    She closes her eyes and recalls the conversation that she had with the entity this morning. "I think it is a being of malevolence, but it wasn't aimed at me." She chuckles, "Quite the contrary. It told me to think of it as an old friend, a neighbor. I can't help but think there's some sort of double entendre in 'neighbor'. It suggested that it was old... perhaps older than the Old Ones. Which, if true, narrows down what it could be quite a bit. Or it could just be messing with me, leading me to conclusions."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    The witch wrinkles her nose at the idea of something older than the Old Ones.

    "Ugh. Lydia, that hurts my head to even think about, and I'm older than most of the League." she mutters, sipping her tea more as she considers.

    "So it was a problematic appearation that picked up a dirty sock. Problem is, you'll want someone more powerful than me to look into something like it. I'm just here for the paperwork." she replies, her lips pressed together in a thin smile.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia snorts. "Yeah. Imagine having a deep conversation with it." She shakes her head. "I'm still trying to wrap my head about what it //wants//. It its purpose was in visiting me. That's the thing that bothers me the most. There are plenty of entities out there that have the capability of bypassing my wards, but none of them would just pop by to have a little chat. Hell, I figured that we'd be beneath their notice and if we //did// manage to capture their notice then my wards wouldn't make a lick of difference and we'd have bigger fish to fry."

    She lets out a small sigh and shakes her head. "Problem is, we're the Justice League Dark. Dealing with these things falls under our purview. The only other person I'd think to consult would be Dr Strange." Then she gets a sour look, "Or Constantine."

    She scowls and decides that another bite of the finger sandwich is in order. "Thing is, I don't think anybody is in any kind of immediate danger with it. Oh, it insinuated that you wouldn't want to be on its bad side, so it certainly isn't harmless, but I don't know if it necessarily wants to do harm."

    She purses her lips and drums her fingers on the table in thought. "I think the best course of action, right now, is to warn the other members. Tell them to be wary of family or loved ones just popping in on them and having strange chats with them. To be cautious not to anger it, and get more information if they can."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Yeah, whole reason I can't consult is because on the odd occasion I still see the other one popping in, looking like he was ridden hard and put away wet in the worst way with a jumble of old memories attached to it. Back in the day, John, CHas, Ricky -- god even Renee. All friends. All supposedly fake memories. That's the problem with having done mental magic on oneself. Can't ever be too sure anything is purely the truth." she mutters, "Lost m' best friend"

    And then she breathes out. "Strange or the Constantines are probably your best bet, Duckie. This old bird isn't much use to anyone without some refresher, and I'm afraid perhaps the time has come to maybe look into retirement for real this time. Had tea with one of the Ghost Riders you know. Not even a flicker of flame. Maybe I've finally cleared my consciousness of trying to sacrifice the City of Boston to bring back Addie." she gives a wry smile.

    "But yes... might want to send a memo out ot the rest of the League Dark to beware of their loved ones coming to see them."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia gives Nettie a hard stare, setting the small down on the plate. "Self pity doesn't suit you, Nettie," she says coldly, standing. "I've drank from that cup and I've had my fill." She turns to the tree and retrieves her coat from it. "And don't mock me. If this entity turns its malevolence on us and we are unprepared, we are fucked."

    Tugging her coat on she heads out the door, pausing to say, "Like it or not, you're our leader. If that's too heavy a burden to shoulder, then find somebody else so you can..." she flails a hand in frustration, "wither away until the world ends. Have a good evening, Nettie. Enjoy the bread." And with that, she's gone.