18644/Mothers and Orphans

Mothers and Orphans
Date of Scene:	22 July 2024
Location:	Gymnasium and Pool - Wayne Manor
Synopsis:	Cassandra and Talia talk. Few words are necessarily said.
Cast of Characters:	Talia al Ghul, Cassandra Cain

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Talia al Ghul has posed:
It was rather late in the evening. While recovering still from her brutal injury from the vampire queen, Talia was slowly trying to return her body to it's former state. That sort of effort took a great deal of time. Even now, weeks in, she was still lagging behind where she should be. She was going through the motions of a kata - one at a higher speed than she could perform, and her motions were clearly lagging behind it. On a ground to the side of her was an old television hooked up to a VHS player showing a man wearing a skull-mask, cape, and highly flamboyant costume doing the same routine which she wasn't quite matching.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Late evening was clearly early morning for most of the 'Bats' anyway and thus Cas was certainly up, casually dressed for the moment though likely intending to take her shift at patrol soon.

It wasn't like she was heading out for a social life!

Her travels seemed to bring her to the same space, a shadow at the edge of the light cast by the screen as she moved in silently, curiously, to watch the woman who she'd indeed seen sustain such a brutal injury.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
She was pushing herself beyond waht she should be able to do in training. And eventually her body gave out. With a solid wince as a muscle would twitch and pain and cramps would hit her over, Talia Al Ghul would cease for now, taking a few moments to catch her breath and then shut off the VCR.

"Cassandra." Her posture was rather poor and slightly ill at ease. She was carrying herself with the posture of someone uncertain over something, hiding it well, and at a loss for how to go about resolving it.

"Your patrols have gone well?" Cassandra's training, as far as Talia had grasped, not left her with much interest in small talk.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra's parents were hardly unknown to Talia, the training she'd undergone to be a weapon from birth likely understood well enough by the 'Daughter of the Demon'. Cassandra moves forwards, a nod given in response before a hand was offeres to assist in stability for Talia to sit herself down.

Hiding injury or uncertainty from Cassandra Cain was...difficult at best.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would tense very slightly; the automatic response from someone being given an offer of assistance before deciding to take it. Her posture shifting to radiate gratitude. Internally annoyance with having pushed herself too far and irritation that she should know better. But nothing that a hot shower and some stretching couldn't soothe.

Then, going to sit as indicated, gaze shifting in curiousity while she would look at Cassandra.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
"You are recovering. Slower than you would like." She spoke, she'd been working on it for a while, but it was still more statement than question really. Tilting her head to the side, she moves to sit opposite, eyes almost unnervingly watching the other woman.

"You came closer to dying than most of us."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The assassin should know better. To the limits of her body and her recovery. She had been trained by the best after all. There's a clear spike of irritation in her form - not at Cassandra, but at herself for refusing to acknowledge her body's limits. So again why was she doing so?

Becasue it made for a rather useful distraction from other things, other emotional issues.

"Yes, I did." There's no particular trembling in her frame at the admittance, screaming in agony she might have been near to at the time.

She had died before, after all.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
The lazurus pit wasn't often kind to one's mind, who knows what might happen to Cassandra if she herself was to be immersed in it and brought back from the other side.

Plenty of issues to work through after all.

A shift, she nodded, Cass drawing her hands to her lap. "You will recover. It will be faster if you don't damage yourself further."

Speech was improving...empathy? Not so much.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The Pits took a bit more from you each time you went in and came out. Talia was well aware of that. Parts of her were gone, replaced with other things. The Pits were particularly cruel with leaving that void of emptiness.. Which likely had further effects on her psyche.

Like with how beholden she was to the manipulations of her father with each little fracture of her mind.

And this was quite empathatic for Orphan. She was merely being direct. Talia's body posture would shift to light amusement and relaxation. "Yes, but it is an.." Effective distration from whatever emotionally it was that had her so frustrated. Physical activity was a balm to soothe the soul, and pushing herself to pain meant that she could let it roll over those small things which otherwise she would have to face.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Certainly Cassandra understood it, very much so. Her world was one of physicality and expression after all. To be stifled from it would be...bad. Just her time recovering from having been bitten and at risk of turning was enough.

"You need to find a balance...or another distraction."

How simple it was made to sound!

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The sigh coming from Talia would be pointed, but acknowledging. Conceding to Cassandra's logic in the matter. Talia kept her body language open and unguarded in the presence of Cassandra; it was easier than words for the both of them. She and Cassandra shared a twisted perspective and background.

Both had been trained as killers from the ground up.

She would hum thoughtfully. "But I shall not have either I fear for some time."

Cassandra Cain has posed:
"Find some? Cook? Read? Shop?" Cass listed, of course she was almost certainly working through a list of things she'd seen others do in the Manor. Minus training of course.

She was trying to be helpful, after all she could truly 'see' the frustration and fear like noone else might.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
And that was what differentiated the two so much. That at the end of the day, the trauma, that Cassandra could see those threads of irritation and was was offering her best ideas on it. To someone that at best case was very likely a stranger if not a possible enemy due to her history.

Talia would shift to show appreciation. "I'll figure it out. Hopefully I'll be able to push myself back to normal within a more.. Efficient timespan and that will suffice."

It wasn't like actually dealing wtih the issue was an option. Her body posture would shift to something of thoughtfulness.