14911/An Al Ghul in the Family

An Al Ghul in the Family
Date of Scene:	12 May 2023
Location:	Lake - Wayne Estate
Synopsis:	Talia informs Phoebe about the arrival of her father in her life. And breaks down over it as Phoebe reassures her it will be all right.
Cast of Characters:	Talia al Ghul, Phoebe Beacon

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Talia al Ghul has posed:
A day or two ago, Talia had gone to Gotham. She had come back sometime very early (by Wayne inhabitant standards) and left two notes under doors. If one had paid attention, they would be under the doors of the rooms of Damian and Bruce. Now she had gone out to sit at the lake, alone and far off on the docks. And if one paid much attention to her from a distance..
    Her hands would be shaking.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is not the strongest detective in the family, but she does notice things. Usually she doesn't act on them, but... Talia had become a friend, and in some ways also a mentor to the magician.

    By the lake, Idu was the first to arrive, gracefully loping with his tail curled up over his back, ears forward and blue eyes looking this way and that, red nose twitching as he makes his way over to Talia, white paws darkened by the lake's water.

    He was followed by Phoebe, who has been hiding her hair in wraps and under skullcaps recently, and she comes to Talia's side, and sinks down a respectful distance away from her. She has a bright yellow rubber branch in her hand, which she takes and lobs it out into the lake for Idu to chase.
    She waits a moment, to see if Talia starts the conversation...

    And then she looks over to her, over a pair of glasses perched on her nose.

    "Penny for your thoughts."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia would take some moments as if caught by surprise at someone approaching her. Not that Idu was particularly easy to miss, or Phoebe walking with him.. Talia would stop her hands from shaking and turn her neck over to face Phoebe. Her face taking a few moments contorting before settling over in a controlled expression and.. Forcing a smile up.
    "Hello PHoebe, Idu. And.." She would glance back at the lake, as if debating whether she should say something before finally exhaling in a controlled style.
    "I suppose you could say that it's family matters." Leaving that open ended as a reply in the case that Phoebe did not want to inquire more.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Idu returns, and he drops the stick-toy at Talia's feet. He is now wet to his chin, his curled-up tail wagging as he sits himself down, and tilts his head, too-long ears flipping to one side.

    "I suppose that's why you dropped notes outside Bruce and Dam's rooms?" she questions, her eyebrows rising up as she links her fingers, and lets her hands hand down between her knees.

    "I've got ears and time."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would nod and then let out a sigh, moving to close her eyes to sort out her own thoughts and put them in a way that made some sort of sense. "Yes, my.. Father is in town." She folds her hands together. "And is.. Making inquiries as to circumstances."
    Everything else rather paled in comparison to that.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Inquiries as to circumstances. Your standing with the League of Assassins? What college Damian got accepted to? Whether or not he's eating all his greens at dinner?" Phoebe questions, and she purses her lips a moment, and looks out over the lake.

    Idu brings her the yellow stick since Talia didn't throw it. Phoebe reels back, and gives the yellow stick a throw again into the lake.

    "I know you said you were waiting for him to come. Given what you've gone through here, with us... what are your thoughts?"

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shake her head, "I.. Cannot say, exactly. But my father does not do things on a random whim. HE is up to some sort of game or scheme. One that my prescence and position were already factored in for." That was something Talia had expected ahead of time.. But it still was terrifying in it's own way.
    To know that you were doing exactly as someone else had intended months ago was no matter what. Talia's too caught up in things to give the entertainment that the poor, abandoned Idu desperately needs. But Phoebe is htere to pick up the slack.
    "I do not know what my father's motives or long term intents are. I rarely do." Merely that she was a pawn in them.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Would removing your presence from Gotham interrupt his plan in an unforseeable way?" Phoebe wrinkles her nose a minute, considering. "I hear Aruba's nice this time of year." she offers as a joke, and then she leans back, her arms drawing behind her to cushion her head.

    "You're scared." Phoebe observes, though the way she says it is soft, as if she was trying to hide it from God Himself, her eyes closing as she thinks.

    "What would you like to do?"

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shake her head, "Unknown. I am.. Strongly considering it. I do not wish to put any of you in danger from my presence, particularly if my father has active plans to turn me." Wait, she says 'to turn her' as if that implied he could make her do something whether or not she had any say in the matter.
    "And I am terrified. My father is at least five hundred years old, and one of the most dangerous men on the planet. I would like to flee and never hear from him again. But I doubt there is anywhere I could go that he could not find me."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... I don't think you're counting on things Ra's doesn't know." Phoebe considers quietly. She holds a hand up.

    "I have the Curio building. It's a magically warded building that I've bound in my own blood. He might not forsee you mocing into a room there." she states, She brings up another finger -- "I can hide another person in magic and make them untracable to an extent. If not I've got contacts who can set you up temporarily in other places. But..." she wrinkles her nose "I'm not sure if I can convince them to do it without owing a favor, and I'm more scared of the current owner's wife than I am of anything else except maybe Chas's coming back." she recounts, and then she closes her eyes again.

    "If you felt like camping long term I've got a contact in Sri Lanka..." she trails off quietly. "I don't think Ra's knows of all of my abilities, unless you or Damian forwarded him a memo."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would fold her hands together and shake her head, "I know. But.. Phoebe, I was personally trained by my father, was the leader of the League of Assassins and am fluent in their ways. The entire time I was here my father had me monitored by his agents in ways that I never noticed at all." That's the bit that has her in such real terror, if Phoebe could tell over by the way that Talia's body language shifted. Whether or not she was giving her father too much credit..
    The fact she had apparently been had come as a massive shock to her and still had her completely on edge.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Yeah, and you've been living in the same building as me and you don't even know all my secrets." Phoebe comments a little dryly.

    "Do you think that your father could turn you against us?" she asks quietly, because that is definitely a concern that needs to be addressed one way or another.

    "Or is there something we could break? If it was metaphysical, I could try..." she states, though her confidence sounds... wavering. Idu returns, dripping water, and drops the yellow stick at Talia's feet again.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shake her head softly, "He could have me thrown into the Lazarus Pit. So long as there is enough left of a body.. The individual can be resurrected. After, a form of.. Madness tkaes over that can be controlled. He can simply have me targeted until the point where I am taken, then have me thrown into it. After a time, I will come back.. Molded."
    That is more than anything else the fear that grips at her. "Something short of destroying the way the Pits are empowered altogether.. There are a number of them around the world." She would sigh. "The way to stop it is not something I would ask anyof you to do."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "So. Your body would have to be destroyed in such a way that restoration via a Lazarus Pit would be impossible. Immolation. Disintegration... things that you can't be brought back from--" Phoebe's nose wrinkles "/Easily/."

    Necromancy is *not* fun.

    Idu whines and stomps his feet a little bit at Talia ignoring him.

    

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would nod, "Yes. If I die, you would have to put my body through something that would leave nothing left of it to be taken. That is not something I could ask any of you to do." There are some traumas that one does not want to put those they care for through.
    "Very well." She takes a hand to rub Idu behind the ears since he seems insistent.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Petting dogs is relaxing and relases dopamine and serotonin, lowers blood pressure and releives stress.

    Idu's ears flatten to either side, and he gives a happy sounding pant as he's rubbed behind his taill ears.

    "It would mean enduring Damian's wrath... but if it's within my power?" Phoebe states, and she leans one arm towards Talia, offering her pinky out. She's making a promise. It's *important*.

    "I would stop him from taking your body."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would nod gently, "Thank you. But I also do not want to make you have tog o through such a thing. You have suffered enough already in your life. Too many traumas and tortures. I will not have you do more things to alienate thsoe you care for and that care about you. I would not want you to do such a thing that would cost you more. You have enough burdens for one so young. You do not need another."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You talk about it like it's something that I haven't thought of before. Trauma and tortures -- what have *you* endured, Talia, in your lifetime? If it alienates people from me, they'll either understand in time or they won't. And that's fine." Phoebe comments as she sits up, her pinky still offered out.

    "You made a choice. You left the League. You came *here* to Gotham, and you immersed yourself *here* with this family. With *my* family. You have never told me my feelings were useless. You encouraged me. And I should think if it came down to the wire, you would choose this family over the League of Assassins because you recognize that we're healthier for you. It might not be *perfect* -- Gods of the Ogdoad know that *I'm* not perfect in any way -- but you deserve your /choice/. You deserve your /freedom/. And if that means that you have freely made the choice that you do not want to come back via Lazarus Pit and be turned to be your father's /unthinking loyal puppet/ then I will friggin' make it *happen* to the best of my ability. I owe you *that* much."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would look over at Phoebe and there's a gentle smile on her face.. And also a tear. That is quickly wiped away over from her and then vanishes like it was never there. "What I have endured I brought upon myself, Phoebe. The decisions in the end have always been my own. And is to me to bear the consequences of them."
    Her tone is soft. "And I would not have taken it if Father had not banished me for whatever reason. I have had years to have taken such an option and yet I did not. I did not choose to flee, it was a decision made by my father. And I will have to pay a penance for that. I have far, far worse things than blood on my hands. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.."
    "But I must face the consequences for my own choices and failures when the reaper comes. I will not ask for you to do something to bring harm upon yourself or the rest of the family for my sake. Great or minor." A hand goes over to give a squeeze to Phoebe's shoulder.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Ra's al Ghul is a cult leader and terrorist, Tals." Phoebe points out, and she brings her legs in, crossing them and sitting on her feet in a lotus position. "Even now in the second breath when you mentioned he would kill you and reanimate you for his own ends you're trying to come up with ways to circumvent it." Phoebe lets her hand drop, and she breathes out, and looks back over the lake.

    "Lazarus Pits stop Death from taking you. You won't have the chance to face the consequences because, like you said, he'll just throw you in one and reanimate you. And then fill your head with things to make you loyal to him And your loyalty and dedication to your family is admirable -- hey, let me tell you, I've been loyal to some *ass* people," she rolls her eyes a moment, in the most Teenager fashion, and then her voice softens.

    "But you're part of the family here, too. Damian's family. The ones who come back late in the morning with bullet wounds and lacerations and then go about their day jobs wearing a whole different mask. The ones who look out for one another." she points out.

    "You don't get to face Death when your dad brings you back repeatedly."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
And then Talia does something that likely surprises Phoebe a great deal. That no doubt surprises Talia even more as her form shudders and covnulses. She's just broken over into total sobs, curling up with her arms over her legs and almost rolling over and going fetal. There's no verbal reaction over to Phoebe's words. Just an old woman losing control.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Yes. Yes that does surprise Phoebe a great deal when Talia breaks into sobs. Phoebe looks to Idu, who appears equally as distraught, and then Idu doubles down on what 'emotional support animal' training he had to be Phoebe's, and bodily attempts to wriggle his way to Talia', ears back, tail waggling, giving whines.

    And as Talia sobs and Idu pushes to one side, Phoebe moves closer.

    Phoebe, who did not like being touched even by those who were close to her, wraps one arm around Talia's shoulders, and leans against her from the other side.

    "You take as long as you need, Tals." Phoebe states gently. "I'm here. We're all here."

    "We aren't abandoning you."