6828/Good Grim News

Good Grim News
Date of Scene:	07 July 2021
Location:	The Playground - Medbay
Synopsis:	Natasha springs the news of Mother's death on Nadia. It's hard to swallow, and nobody feels awesome about it.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Nadia Pym-van Dyne

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    During Janet and Nadia's visit to Natasha during the latter's recovery, Janet had to step away for a moment. It's one of those situations where an opportunity is presented, but it's an opportunity to do something you just as well would have put off if you can.

    Nothing for it, though.

    "Mmf. Gorgeous." Natasha remarks with a mouthful of one of the cookies Nadia was kind enough to bring her. It probably doesn't go with doctor's orders, but to hell with it, Natasha had a proper GARBAGE few months. Her eyes drift to Nadia again, and while the gentle smile she's affecting doesn't change, there's something a tiny bit intense in Natasha's eyes. "... I was actually hoping to get you alone for a minute." She says softly.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia glances after Janet in the direction of her departure. It's not exactly unusual for her step-mom to have to take a call or deal with this or that as both an Avenger and Billionaire CEO, doing so in the middle of a visit to SHIELD's secret hideaway decidedly rarer and she can't help but wonder what it is for a moment before turning her attention back to the convalescing Natasha. "I'm glad you like the cookies!" She smiles, "When Janet made me stay in the hospital after Siberia, the food was terrible until she started bringing me things from outside. So, I figured you'd probably be craving something nice." Siberia, when she had been recollected by the Red Room rather than have her life burned down around her and Janet got caught in the crossfire as well.

She blinks when Natasha gets more intense and says she was hoping to her get alone. "Umm okay, what's up?" She asks with a mix of curiousity and a tinge of nervousness.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's smile broadens slightly and she says, simply, "That's very thoughtful of you." when Nadia explains the gift. She still has to get used to the idea of gifts that don't have strings attached, but... for now she's just trying to master the part of her brain that screams at her not to eat food that's been presented to her by another person.

    You can take the spy out of the Red Room, but...

    Natasha's smile fades to a bit of a neutral look, and she considers for a moment before she says. "... You may want to sit down, depending. I don't know how different things were for you."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The getting Nadia alone doesn't seem to involve shooting her after all, which is a relief. You never know with the Red Room and Black Widows who play the long game. Even for a girl who wants to see the best in those around her it remains hard to accept things that are non-measurable or verifiable in concrete terms as truth.

Nadia finds a nearby stool and seats herself upon it. If Natasha thinks she might need to sit down then she's going to sit down. She nods slowly, it is clear from Natasha's words that she is talking about their upbringings in /that place/.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha is silent for a moment. It's strange. Despite the fact that she's longed of ridding herself of that particular shadow for so long... she feels like she's delivering bad news. Even she's not completely sure how she feels. But, then, her feelings have been a bit of a mess since she left a dozen so of her own corpses behind.

    Finally, Natasha says. "In that base... in the lab underneath it. ... She was there. Mother was there. That's... half of why I went there in the first place." She pauses for a moment and looks directly at Nadia as she softly and severely says, "... She's dead now. Lyudmilla is dead. Gone." Her throat tightens as she says it, an emotional reaction that frustrates Natasha. She tries to suppress it, and swallows hard once before slightly hoarsely saying, "... She can't hurt anyone anymore."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Sitting down was definitely a good idea, to call this news shocking would be the understatement of the millennium. In a rare moment of her true upbringing showing through, Nadia's expression is one of pure disbelief. "Are you sure? Is that even possible?" Of course it should be possible for a human to die but Lyudmila has long transcended the standing of a mere mortal in the minds of the Red Room's cadets.

Nadia just sort of stares at Natasha like her usual mile a minute super genius brain has simply short circuited trying to process what the elder Black Widow just told her. "Are you sure?" She repeats, clearly having serious doubts.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha can scarcely believe it herself. Hell, it almost feels irresponsible to tell her this, like it's too good to be true. But people don't recover from what Natasha saw.

    "I'm sure. She ordered another Black Widow - Yelena - to kill me. But she'd seen the clones. She doubted her enough. I had to say some..." Natasha sighs, "... embarrassingly sincere things to her, but... she turned the pistol on Lyudmilla. Shot her with a Widow Sting, and put every single round in that gun into her head."

    Natasha leans her head back slightly against her pillow on the inclined bed and adds, almost wistfully, "... then the Avengers dropped the arctic shelf on her head. I wasn't there for that part. But..."

    "... I'm sure."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia goes to lean back in her chair, but it is a stool, so she nearly falls out of it. "Then.. she's dead.. it's really over." The way she says it though it is clear she is still having trouble believing it.

"I don't understand, so many people tried. Mother was always one step ahead, she always seemed to have a plan. Even Kryptonians didn't seem to faze her. How is this possible?" It's a difficult thing, she /wants/ to believe it, and yet this is Mother, destroyer of countless lives, the seemingly invincible force behind the Red Room.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    "It's hard to believe she just got old." Natasha says sympathetically. Mother losing her edge with old age seems impossible, but people aren't myths no matter how much they want you to believe otherwise. "Granted... she had no reason to think I was coming... or knew where she was. The only reason I did was because her pet psychic contacted me. The only reason Yelena was there was because she was tracking *me*. And Shield and the Avengers were busy freeing the girls, so why would *they* come knocking the next day? How would they find out, except that I lead them there?"

    Natasha looks away and slowly says, "Maybe... maybe we finally caught her off guard. In so far as that's possible." While she says that, though, Natasha has this look on her face, like the words don't taste right as she says them.

    "... One of her agents got away withh the psychic though. The Red Room's not done. They can still just... copy our minds and paste them onto duplicates, if they ever manage to make more. But that old..." Natasha clenches her teeth, one hand curling into a fist and trembling slightly in a rare moment of emotion she wasn't able to restrain for the moment before she collects herself. "... She'll never see it pay off. Whatever else happens... she lost."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia is still rather stunned but as the details emerge the disbelief ebbs slightly. It is easier it would seem to believe that Lyudmila may have passed with the news that the Red Room likely survived. Not that she would want it to survive, but the loss of one is easier to accept with the continued existence of the other. It makes Lyudmila dying more believable because of course Lyudmila would have had a contingency for the survival of the Red Room in the event of her own death.

The eternally effervescent girl just kind of deflates. "Mother is dead." She should perhaps be happy but she doesn't really seem to know how to feel. "So why don't I feel better?" It's not really a question directed at Natasha but to existence itself perhaps. For once the brainiac super genius girl doesn't have an answer.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha smiles gently, "I've met the kind of people who would feel better right now. You don't want to be like them." She says, and looks down at her lap with a sigh. "It's never as cathartic as you want it to be. But you know, I..."

    Natasha hesitates for a moment, and then looks at Nadia. "... I think there's still something good to take away. Every worry... every feeling, every bad dream you'd have, that... someday you'd turn around and she'd just... be there. To take you back. Smirking like she never lost you. The reason that feeling was so strong, was because it really was possible, with her." Natasha takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. "It's not possible anymore. Mother isn't anywhere anymore. She's a stain, rotting in a place where even the worms can't reach her. She. Is. *Gone.*"

    Natasha looks away slowly. "... So maybe now that feeling will finally start to go away."

    Natasha thinks the words 'I hope.' but doesn't say them out loud. Uncertainty and paranoia are what Mother would have surely loved to leave them with. While Natasha tends to find that kind of hope and certainty irresponsible... she'd like for at least Nadia to have a chance to ever feel safer, if only from one person. Call it spite via kindness. Natasha would like to deny Mother every little victory she can.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia finally gathers herself up and pushes herself to her feet again, the effects of the shock seemingly wearing off. She then crosses the intervening distance to where Natasha is and does what comes natural to her, that need for human connection after so long in isolation, she gives Natasha a hug.

It is a gesture as much for Natasha as it is for her. They may have been raised in different eras, in different facilities, but Mother was the same and it would seem at least from her they are finally free.

"Thank you for telling me."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    For once, Natasha doesn't squirm. She'd like to, but... it's not like she doesn't know how to be warm and huggy when her work requires her to be, so for Nadia's sake she's just gonna be that person for a minute, putting her arm around Nadia and patting her back gently. "Yeah." She says softly. "Sorry to spring it on you. I just didn't want to sit on it and hit you with it while everyone's busy or..." Natasha shrugs, "... happy, or something."