14786/The Terrible Life Lessons of Nettie Crowe
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| The Terrible Life Lessons of Nettie Crowe | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 26 April 2023 |
| Location: | Candle, Booke and Belle |
| Synopsis: | Nettie and Talia have a frank discussion about regrets and terrorism. |
| Cast of Characters: | Nettie Crowe, Talia al Ghul
|
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
The Candle was closed today, as it was wont to do at odd Wednesdays through the year at Nettie's whims. The door, of course, always opens for those in the Justice League, its Dark incarnation, or those who are friends to the Old Crowe.
It was supposed to be an 'inventory' day, but Nettie had decided it was more of a 'back to nature' sort of day, and was sitting in the middle of the shop floor, the chairs and benches for reading over folios or waiting on people trying on cloaks and dresses and whatever other clothing Nettie deigned to have about the shop for sale.
So she was wearing a linen shift, and not much else. Her silvery hair is down. Her flask was set before her (emptied) and a large blue bottle with a skull and crossbones and 'NOT FOR THE WEE PUPS' etched on it open and partially emptied. Her too-blue-for-real-life eyes are staring at a crackling fire in the fireplace, which herbs have been added to making the shop smell cloyingly sweet and smokey.
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
There's been nothing pressing on the end of Talia at Stately Wayne Manor, so she's taken a quiet period to come and check in on Nettie. The bell rings as she goes to enter, wearing a rather comfortable sweater and jeans. She would glance about and give a nod, "Ah, hello. You look rahter comfortable. You should be knitting to truly complete the visual. Have some bedraggled cats scattered around." Those additions would make NEttie look the perfect 'crazy cat lady' after all.
Talia's brought nothing in with her, so goes to sit down wherever the nearest chair is.
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
The nearest chair is to the side of the circle. Nettie doesn't look over when the door opens, though her mostly ever-present crow Corvax gives a harsh call of greeting to Talia as she enters.
"Alack and alas, most cats cannae stand my presence. Mostly only the black ones, and even then they would have to be on their seventh or eighth life beforehand." the old with comments, giving a toothy grin.
"An' I only knit when I watch the news. Something to do with my hands, you know."
The old woman in the shift looks over to Talia.
"Reliving a few old days. Trying to straighten out the ol' memories. Recallin' when I was young and full of courage and vigour and... what do the kids these days call it? Moxie? Is that too old?"
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would go to slide in over and move to cross her hands over on her lap and cock her head, "I don't know. I'm at a point where I would be considered rather young. I don't think I've gone through quite as many lives as those cats do.. But hopefully I at least have that many to look forwards to." Then again, she might not. With the lovely state of affairs between her and her father. But it was perhaps for the better..
"And what might be those sorts of stories? One always relives things when they have regrets. Things done wrong, courses not taken.. Things never done. One does not ever reminsice without wonder."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"Aah and how young is young? How old is old? How many lives do we have a tendency to live and let behind us in our wake as we cause more and more red to show in the pages of our biographies? Though I wager you may have somewhat more purposeful than myself." Nettie gives a toothy grin.
"And not true. I relive my joys, too. That which causes this ol' heart of mine to jump and remember what it's like to flutter like a bird against my ribcage. Ah, to have been young and in love." Nettie cackles at that.
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shrug, "Well, we all experience time and aging differently. Less so i na physical sense, and moreso in a mental one. A life that lasts but a day brings with it the full breadth of experience. What goes before the body when one sees age as but an experience is the mind." She muses over thoughtfully.
"And something that we do." A very neutral response given over to Nettie's presumption. But an accurate one. "And thus whom do you see longing that makes you so wistful?"
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"Mm, it changes. The faces and names. Sometimes my sister and her husband. Sometimes my mother and father. Sometimes my wife. Heh! Even on the odd occasion market girls and vendors and fishermen, the wives of sailors and nurses of the dying." Nettie gives a very mild smile. "Sometimes lives lived for a day or two. Eventually, you know, they start noticing I don't age, and inevitably some dramatic occurance must happen. And who do you see then, if you have no regrets, in those moments between sleep and wakefulness, Talia?"
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would nod, "So you look back then and you remember. Or you just have the mood and the emotion go through you. The wistfulness?" SHe would settle back. "i can hardly speak to have such experiences. I have not the age nor the lifetime. Nor how to look at things when one stays the same age and sees those who are young in time fade around you. And I have many regrets. I shall have more of them in the life to come, whether it is but a day or a century."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"Bah, Talia, you can harden your heart but it's impossible to part it forever from yourself. An' not healthy. Take it from me." Nettie remarks as she reaches for her flask, and realizes it's horribly empty.
"Was going to sacrifice the city of Boston in order to bring the dead back. Puttering 'bout with necromancy is no small venture when access to certain pools of glowing green goo is at a premium." Nettie states, "... an' messy 'sides in both cases."
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would go to lean over and prop her chin on her palm, "I live in a life where I must harden my heart. When it is weak I do things I regret. And when it is weak I will continue to do things that I regret. And I will already reap the consequences of them. I can only hope that when my debts are called that I shall not take the others with me."
As Nettie goes to speak, in her own putters, Talia would muse. "I care little for the city so I could hardly deny your request."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"You know ordinarily people are *horrified* when they realize I would sacrifice millions of strangers for a single loved one. But I was in a bad place." Nettie remarks.
Well, yeah. Boston.
"Peh. Others journey with you regardless. Few people die in a vaccuum and Death is a very busy concept." she gives a small smile. "But from what I understand, you're something of an eco-warrior. A few well-placed deaths to preserve for the Greater Good, yes?"
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
It's not like the city would be missed /that/ much. I'ts not a hotbed of culture like southern California.. "And I suppose then one must look at it as the most selfish thing. To be willing to sacrifice everyone and everything for those one cares about more than anything. That's the thing of which romances and legends are forged of."
"For the greater good, yes. There are always those who take too much and give too little. If some level of balance can be made.."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"Yes. Sacrificing every man, woman and child. Every mother holding their offspring. Every lover elsewise. The lonely, the birthing, the dying, for the sake of a few scant years with a single woman." Nettie gives a wry grin.
"Thank goodness better and less broken hearts prevailed that day. Would have been a shit way to be Damned." she jokes, and she leans her head back against a chest.
"If some level of balance can be made, it's worth the price of a little blood, aye?"
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would lean back over, "There will always be sacrifices. Sometimes necessary. Sometimes not. Sometimes blindly. Sometimes pragmatically. But there will always be sacrifices. There will always be imbalances. And I do not presume to be good nor reputable." She would joke right on back.
"I would prefer sacrices be made for a cuase and something bigger. For the benefit of as many as possible."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"As long as someone has the foresight to see what benefits the many. Must have a great many sages in your life to advise of such." Nettie gives a wry smile.
"Hoo. This hallucinagenic bug tincture is awful on the sinuses." she snorts a moment "I'm going to have post-nasal drip for weeks. Ugh." she states as she looks off, distant, towards the fire.
"What's it like then, Thimble, to not regret?"
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shrug, "We must look ahead. I do not presume to have such foresight nor vision. I can only pledge myself, sometimes.. And hope that which I go for is just and has meaning." Those words come from her mouth almost without intent. An admission.. Of what she is. And ultimately..
What she will probably remain.
"Then why do you not look for something to cleanse yourself of a simpler, more effective nature to clear yourself? And I think regret is part of existence."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"Because I deserve it. I carry the weight of my actions, and those of some of my students," she taps her temple "in here. Robbed them of their memories and magical knowledge so that they can live the quiet life. And sometimes I need to see the memories a bit more clearer to figure out to whom they belong. Chances are if there's a husband in 'em, not mine." she gives a bark of a laugh.
"I don't have a greater good or creed to stick to. No family members to mark my learning or direct my hand. My choices. My regrets. Each as invaluable as diamonds, sparkling in the firmament above us. In that, I suppose, I have freedom that you do not."
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shrug, "Then you understand that regrets are necessary. And that if you did not have them then you would be all the poorer for it. They are reminders that we are fallible and that we do things that we are not proud of or that we erred in. To not have them is to deny part of being alive. And are the memories all your own?"
As Nettie would go on. "And freedom is something that can be taken or denied. Ultimately.. The choice is my own and not my own."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"The choice is always your own, Thimble." Nettie gives a dark smile at that. Her head tilts forward a little bit, her eyes lidding.
"Choices and consequences. Regrets and joyful memories." she tilts her head back again.
"Y'know, I do readings for others. Crystal balls. Tarot cards. Many in our little cadre of misfits are hard to judge."
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shrug over, "And yet there are always things above us that limit things, perhpas. We can deny them, yes. But unless we wish to have our own regrets multiplied more.." Talia has come to accept fatalistically where her life will go, ultimately.
And that she will always be limited in her freedom to make choices. Her own particular penance.
"And we must be aware where choices can lead. And look the consequences in the face. And I do not presume to want such a reading, curious as I am."
- Nettie Crowe has posed:
"Fair enough." Nettie replies with a slight grin. "My cards tend to be rather smart about things. On occasion they kidnap cards frmo other decks to make a point."
- Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would smile, "Yes. And that would leave me with but more regrets, knowing what course things forwards might be and what paths are to be denied."
