15962/And All the Snacks We Couldn't Eat

And All the Snacks We Couldn't Eat
Date of Scene:	27 September 2023
Location:	Candle, Booke and Belle
Synopsis:	Post D&D Discussion with Josh Foley
Cast of Characters:	Nettie Crowe, Joshua Foley

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Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Adventure was had, candle elatedly returned to its place in the village in spite of someone's desire to sell it back, and the real life candle was placed above the mantle of the fireplace, which was merrily crackling as the huge amount of food was set out for post-adventure talks and snacking, guests have bid their adieus, though Nettie wasn't keen quite yet to retire to her apartment beneath the shop.
    "So, I think I may run an adventure every couple of weeks. A variety of one shots both silly ans serious. Nice way to get to know people. Everyone took being transported to Woolsyde very nicely. I'm impressed. Patience is rather used to my shenanigans at the moment."

Joshua Foley has posed:
Joshua glances a bit down as he considers Nettie's words, "I really enjoyed tonight." he admits as he snags one of the cupcakes that he brought to snack on. He had started cleaning as soon as the adventure was over, after seeing Belinda off to bed.

"I... I think I'm going to need to study more." he admits, popping the whole cupcake in his mouth, chewing a few times and swallowing. "Like... I kept comparing the two genres because I thought they were related and it probably broke character with everyone else. Give someone else the chance to play."

Picking up a couple of plates, he tosses them into the trashbag he hung off one of the chairs. "Corvax, did you like your tart?" he asks. "We have plenty of leftovers!"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "You did brilliantly for your first session ever, Josh, especially given your background." Nettie gives a smile, and she motions to the other overstuffed chair near the fireplace as she sits down. "Plates and clean up will still be there in ten minutes. Come, have a settle an' a chat." Nettie invites the golden boy, and she picks up her cup, gives it a sniff -- RC cola -- and she takes out her flask and dumps some of the gin into it.

    Corvax flies back down. His head is covered in tart filling.

    "I... uh. Enjoyed it. It was a'right. Definitely needs real rum in it."

Joshua Foley has posed:
Joshua winces and supresses a snicker when he sees Corvax. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry!" Getting a napkin from the spread, he goes over to clean off the crow's feathers. "There, right as rain." comes the quip and a smile.

Only after that does he start towards the chair. But knowing that it's getting late, he stops at the fridge first for a milk, before making his way and settling into the chair, sort of curling into it as he opens the milk and sips from it.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Corvax accepts the clean up.

    "Aye, you're an all right mate, kid." the crow states, shaking out his feathers a bit more and then he flits over to Nettie's chair, perching on the back of it.

    "You're a good lad, Joshua. You've got a couple of spots that need improving, but I feel that will come in time. Growing your confidence an' your shaken' sense a' self isn't a short-term project." she gives a small smile. "But the nice thing about playing something like Dungeons & Dragons, is that you get to pretend to be someone else for a while. Even if it's something silly. An' in my time we've seen all manner of silly come 'cross tables. Not just in games, nah, but ideas. Magical plausabilities. Science. Did you know that Tony Stark's father debuted a flying car at the world's fair during the second war, an' we still don't have that technology to the common man?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
Taking another drink from his bottle, Joshua sets it down and pulls his knees tight to his chest, and rests his chin on his knees. "Mom..." he starts. Not Nettie. Mom. This is serious. "...my parents raised me to be how I am. Two years ago, I was wearing Reaver armor and trying to beat up muties because they were different than me and my parents taught me what type of adominations they were. That included myself. Which is why you were so easily able to adopt me."

His hands run up and down his shins. "I was one way for seventeen years. And they it's all been turned on it's head. I'm still sorting it out. But I'm trying. I just... I can't just turn it off like a switch. I want to. God, do I want to." he sighs, and lowers to press his forehead to his knees.

"I'm trying to be normal again. To have a family, to have friends. Maybe even finally have a girlfriend. But in the back of my head, there's that anxiety. And insecurity. I have this supposedly great power, but barely scratched the surface of it. Did you know that Doctor McCoy /shoved/ my hands into someone's chest to heal their lungs." His face tightens for a moment, before he lets it go.

"I have the lady that killed me threatening me over a friend of mine if I don't help mutants in Bushwick at her beck and call. And I deserve that. I did so much harm, I have to fix it."

"The reason we don't have a flying car is because the militaristic government social economical complex knows that people would rather have cheap, easily destroyable cars on the ground, instead of a possibly safe alternative. And we have idiots that would be trying to do Tik-Toks while in them and probably ruin all their safety cred and crash the profits that the automotive companies crave most."

Josh may have a lot on his plate.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Aaah a healthy dose of skeptickism. Hold on to that, lad. It'll carry you far." Nettie comments quietly as she digests all the information that Joshua has lobbed at her. And she did look over when he called her 'mom'. She never thought that was a title that she'd have.

    "Sure as Hell exists that there must be a Heaven for Addie to connect our two threads." she murmurs softly, "and I would have faked papers if you wanted to stay here. 'S what happened with a former JLD member. I imagine can't be too hard to submit the information. 'Specially since you're over eighteen." Nettie comments quietly. She leans her head back.

    "You were one way for seventeen years. For a time, I was not the sort of person you would be proud to know. I was hurting. I'd lost my students and my wife to betrayal and the SS." Nettie replies, "But after a time, I chose to be someone different. And it takes time. A change made like a light switch can be changed back with a click of the fingers. You want to change. You put the work in. And the work is *hard*, and some days it'll feel like it's not worth it. You get two steps up the slope, find a patch of gravel and you end up with your knees torn open and your fists scrabbling at rocks to try and catch hold. That's one of the reasons I try to be your rope. Easier to climb if someone's left a trail." she comments quietly, and she purses her lips, quietly considering.

    "I'm not sure who this Doctor McCoy is... so no, I was unaware that he touched you and shoved your hands into someone's viscera. Should I find him an' have a chat? Seems awful rude, you know, shoving someone's hands into someone else's body. Horrible way to learn haruspicy." she remarks thoughtfully.

    However, the news of the lady that killed Joshua threatening him makes her give an audiable sound of anger.

    "No. You Died, Josh. You died, and that version of you died in that hole. You came back. If you feel that you *want* to help the people of Bushwick that's one thing. Being forced to use your powers is slavery, and you are not a slave."

    She turns to face Joshua. "Just like if you had decided to take the Cure, and cease having powers if you make the decision to help, that's your business. But being forced to help... that doesn't sit right with me."

Joshua Foley has posed:
"But Nettie." Joshua treads lightly, using his words carefully. "You were fighting the SS. I may as well have been a Nazi, considering what I was willing to do." A tear rolls down his cheek at the thought. "It was mutants that saved me. Gabby, Bunny, others. They didn't turn their backs on me as I had done onto them..."

"Doctor McCoy is a big blue doctor at Xavier's. He was on the news alot. I don't know about now." comes his response and he drinks some more milk. "I'm wanting to help. It's atonement for all the wrong I've done. And taking the Cure isn't an option now and I'm trying to come to terms to live with myself. It's all part of the cruve, right?"

"I'll follow you, mom. Because I want to."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "It's different. Back in the thirties, the forties, there were a great number of Germans who had no idea. They identified as Nazis, because that was their political stance. They thought the relocation of Jews was to a different country, for a More Pure Germany." Nettie grasps that silk lined case that holds her cigarettes -- just boring ol' tobacco ones. She doesn't bother with a cigarette lighter; she's in her own house.

    "From what I gather, you thought the Reavers were tag-and-release. You were sold the idea that they wanted to make mutants normal -- like your parents." Nettie reflects as she draws up to a stand.

    "The SS knew that trains were transporting children to their deaths by gunfire or gassing. That mothers would have infants ripped from their arms, and those who were too old, or too young, or too sick to work would be put to death. Many women worked to lift infants and children from villages and ghettos before they could be set into trains. When they were shown the footage taken by British soldiers and American GI's from the camps, where even spoon-feeding the starving milk shocked their systems to death, most of Germany wept. 'We didn't know,' they would cry, 'we were following orders'."

    She pauses to stare into the fire. "And Germany admitted what they did was from sickness, and ignorance and hatred, and acknowledge that they did it, and swore that never again would they fall for the same line." she turns to look to Joshua.

    "You know now what they did. You didn't know then. You're a child, Joshua. You have so much time, and life ahead of you. You will come to terms and live with what you have done, but like all things -- learning your skills, getting your first skate trick down, it takes time. And patience with yourself, as well as with the shadows you have cast."

    And she reaches out a gloved hand, offering it to Joshua, not bidding him to get up, but just that very human need of touch.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Joshua doesn't have an answer or a snarky comment this time. Nettie's words ring true. He closes his blue eyes tightly and starts to cry. Something he has done a bit lately.

He'll get better. He has to. Gabby wouldn't date a cryer! Anyway, when Nettie reaches out, he takes her hand and places it between his own, just to hang onto, just until...

Within a couple of minutes, he's asleep, soothed by Nettie's closeness and his grip slips as he slumps down into the chair.