9588/JLD After Party

JLD After Party
Date of Scene:	11 January 2022
Location:	Shadowcrest Manor - Bristol Township
Synopsis:	Phoebe and Cael have a bit of a talk
Cast of Characters:	Cael Becker, Phoebe Beacon

---

Cael Becker has posed:
    As people started to leave the meeting, Cael went on a wandering tour of the strange, massive manor - Bear at her side. She needed the time to gather her thoughts and her composure - if there's one thing she's learned in her life, it's that drving angry never brings you to a place you're going to like.
    Eventually, she finds her way into the great room, and she eyes some of the shelves lining its walls. She pulls a book down almost at random, and takes a seat on the floor - fingers idly running through the dog's fur as she reads from the book. The book doesn't even really make sense to her - and that doesn't matter. It's jsut //something else// for her to focus on.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You know," comes a gentle voice, "If you want an introduction to magic, there's a couple of easier texts I can recommend."

    Phoebe comes around the corner of a table, and she sets down not tea, not coffee, but a mug of cocoa. It has rainbow marshmallows slowly melting in it, and she crosses her legs as she sinks down. She has her own mug of cocoa, and she gives a slightly awkward smile.

    "How are you feeling?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Oh, you know. Frustrated, angry, terrified. Most of the bad feels," Cael says in a light, casual tone. Then with a wry smile she adds, "Calmer, though. I didn't think a meeting would work me up like that but- oh well."
    She picks up the offered cocoa, taking a sip, and letting out an appreciative sound. After all - who //doesn't// like chocolate? "I wouldn't mind a basic primer on magic, actually. I'm trying to understand this world I've been dragged into - but I'm not getting very far. This, though, was just because... well. Reading something and even trying to comprehend is... distracting."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I can grab one of my older notebooks if you wanted. It has a lot of theory and breakdowns for understanding... just... know that it's from the point of view of someone who was born with it." Phoebe gives a slight smile, and a shrug of her shoulder.

    "... yeah... honestly I didn't expect Jon to announce I'm now a leader. Following up with the whole circles presentation after Project Gozer was also a bit nerve wracking. I think I'm getting good at this public speaking thing, though. Maybe I should run for office." she suggests, mostly as a joke, and she takes a breath.

    "Are there any questions I can maybe answer for you? To help you understand?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Honestly? I don't even know what to ask, most of the time. There's just... so much," Cael says with some frustration. "And so many of the 'rules' just feel... arbitrary. I mean - it's literally //magic,// it should be able to do anything, right?" Cael remarks with a dry tone.
    "...congrats on the promotion, by the way. I'm sure you'll kill it." She takes another sip of the cocoa, then scratches at Bear's head. "You'll be out there, yeah? The next time we have to fight the angels? You'll have Jon's back."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I was with Batman, Zatanna, Red Robin, Johnny and Sara at the last fight. In case Zee needed support; I may be her equal in the trimunitive, but she's still my mentor when it comes to learning; for that I'm thankful." Phoebe explains to the first part, and she looks down a moment. "I'll do my best for everyone, though. Especially because I know how easy it is to get lost in all this." she replies gently and she sips her cocoa. She considers a moment.

    "There are two constants with magic, I have found, in my experience over the last four years. One: it will make you throw up. And it's OK to puke. First rule if you plan on learning anything. Second rule is that it always has a cost. I'll never be a normal teenager. Once I found out I had magic, and that my aura of Good Brain and Healing made people like me... it threw an awful lot of doubt on if people actually felt affection for me. So until I met people who were unaffected by it, I had a pretty skewed idea of what a healthy relationship was. That's a cost of magic -- of /my/ magic. It's not always reagents and spellwork." Phoebe explains it from a very personal standing.

    She smiles at the big, fluffy dog.

    "I've got Jon's back."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Right, well, and I was with Jon but-" Cael lets out a long sigh. "I don't know if I'll be able to do that again. Things have become... more difficult. It's good to know others'll have his back out there." He needs to come back.
    "I promised Martin I'd have Jon's back out there. I promised Jon, too - but I just don't know if I can. I don't want to become a liability out there."
    Scratching at Bear's fur she asks, "Do you still struggle to know if people actually like //you// or not?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You were facing someone who tortured you. I'm actually really impressed you didn't freak out and freeze up." Phoebe replies. "I had a hard time recovering from mine, and it wasn't so..." she trails off a moment.

    But at the question that if she still struggles.

    "I struggle every day trying to figure out if people like me for me."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "That's only because Raphael did something for me. He made things feel... distant. Manageable." Cael takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly as she adds, "It all crumbled that night, like he said it would, and things are harder now. I tried to use the time to get better, but-" Well. There was only so much healing you could do in two weeks - especially with that amount of trauma.
    "So like I said - I want to get back out there, but not if I'll be a liability. Rather defeats the purpose."
    With a smirk of amusement she adds, "If I said I hated you would that help? Then you could know your aura thing doesn't //always// make people like you."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I might cry if you said you hated me." Phoebe points out. "I'm sensitive."

    Phoebe gives a small smile back to Cael, listening a moment.

    "Sandalphon did the same for me. I had a spell, it's meant to contain the emotions of three people for three days, so that they can make clear decisions. My issue is that I let it go too long, and it was beginning to eat at me. Literally. You might have noticed I had a tendency to scratch at my chest for a while." she points out with the admission, and she leans back a moment, considering.

    "What are your skills other than shooting Hell-bullets?" she inquires, giving a sidelong look to Cael.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I did notice." She didn't comment, though.
    "I have NYPD, FBI, and SHIELD training," Cael explains. "So I can shoot. I'm decent at hand-to-hand - that sort of thing. I also have a mis-spent youth engaging in illegal street racing - so I'm great behind the wheel. I've been doing hand-to-hand with Cap, so I know how to handle people out of my weight-class. And I've been doing flight training with Sam - hoping I'll be ready to us his wings soon, just so I have a bigger edge and more option, but.... that's it," she says simply.
    As if that wasn't much at all.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Have you ever considered supply runs or small-troop transport?" Phoebe inquires. "Also: Hand to hand with *Cap* as in Captain America?" Probably not Captain Jackass.

    "That's nothing to sneeze at. Let alone flight lessons. I'm still learning the basics of using high-tensile lines, but I have twelve years of Aikido and two years of training in hand-to-hand with Red Robin and some assassins I know." Phoebe explains, "Just to make sure I have options if magic fails me." she considers a moment. And looks to Bear.

    "We could get Bear some doggles, he could be co-pilot if you were needed to run supply runs from caches back to Grand Central. As a thought. Need to be able to navigate the streets, know your vehicle's capabilities for holding speed and what you're able to run over..." Phoebe considers, with the same process she uses to break down the needs of her spellwork and circles.

    "Quartermastering isn't bad either. Even if you can't be out in the field, need someone to make sure everything's in working order. I can fix and repair and upkeep people, but guns aren't... exactly the popular item for vigilante work in Gotham."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "There's another Cap?" Cael asks in a dry tone. "Yes, Steve Rogers. Captain America. We're- well. Colleagues." She takes a sip to hopefully cover for the hint of doubt in her voice - not that they //weren't// colleagues, no. The question was - were they friends?
    "Bear doesn't go into Manhattan," she says flatly. "I don't want him anywhere near combat, or any angels. He's- ...too important." She rubs the dog's head while he thumps his tail on the floor happily, looking up at Cael with a cheerful expression, floppy ears cocked.
    "I could help with supply runs, and quartermastering," she agrees, letting out a sigh. "It's not where I want to be - what I want to be doing. But it's better than nothing, if I'm not capable of cutting it in the field. Last thing I need is to break down in the field, and put everyone at risk as they try to cover me."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Captain Jackass, apparently, but I'm not familiar with the person." Phoebe recalls, and she gives a nod.

    "I have a dog. Well. Was gifted a hound." she states, and she pulls out a smartphone from her pocket. The case is covered by rainbow unicorns, and the screen has a crack and some spider-webbing on it, but it works. She scrolls a moment, and then offers the phone over to Cael. "His name is Idu. My friends in Gotham are keeping an eye on him for me. We videochat." she replies, and on the screen there is a gangly puppy, all legs and elbows and long head of a sighthound and ears that are struggling to get up to their erect poisition.

    "He's not as big or fluffy as bear, but when he sleeps on my bed I sleep much better. I don't want him near New York either. I understand."

    She picks up her mug again. "I also understand how hard that call is for you. All wounds need time."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael accepts the phone, studying the pup on the screen with a small, almost fond smile. "He looks cute," she remarks. She offers the phone back before adding, "Sara, my roommate, got Bear for me. I mean, I wouldn't even have thought- but then, I guess I'm a bit of an idiot." She rubs at his ears adding, "He sleeps on the bed with me. It helps - but I still have nightmares," she says simply. "I mean... that was some shit, you know? And I had nightmares //before// all this." She gives a shrug of her shoulder.
    "I'll send Jon a message though, see who he's got on quartermaster's duty."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "So you and Sara Pezzini are roomies." Phoebe gives a nod, and then she blinks "You're not an idiot, Cael. I don't think so, anyway. For what it's worth -- on account of your hating me, anyway." Phoebe gives a wry smile. "I can only imagine what you went through with the FBI before you got to SHIELD. My nightmares were mostly falling off buildings or being stuck in a fire. Now they're just so weird." Phoebe murmurs quietly. "This life, amirite?" she asks.

    "But... I also wanted to say I have mad respect for you, Cael, and I'm glad that you have a friend like Sara who you can lean on. She seems..."

    Phoebe's nose wrinkles a moment.

    "Terrifying."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Well, not as much as Jon, no," Cael replies in a dry tone. "But we're all... a bit of idiots sometimes. Tell me someone who isn't."
    She lets out a snort before she adds, "Believe me, it isn't my time with the FBI that fuels my nightmares. That stuff was- well, for the most part mundane." There's a brief pause. "Well. My nightmares were mundane as well, but- ...not caused by the FBI."
    She finishes off the last of her cocoa before remarking, "Falling, and fires, huh? Shit. That sounds pretty bad."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Jon is a great example of someone who apparently got dumb the more power he realized he had. There'll be an equallibrium at one point where he stops being dumb."

    Phoebe finishes her cocoa. "Probably."

    And she turns back to Cael, and gives a shrug. "My first adopted dad was a firefighter in Gotham. He stayed during a time called No Man's Land. I'm too young to really remember much of it -- but when I was thirteen, he passed trying to rescue someone in a Narrows tennament building from fire. Pretty soon afterwards I developed powers and -- well. The rooftops appeared to be a Way Less Dangerous way for a fourteen-year-old girl to move around Gotham at night. I fell. A lot." she explains. "While my friends were all worried about the Freshman Formal, I was putting steel plates in a wool jacket to protect against knife strikes." she winces.

    "I may have *never* been a normal child."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Jon is an idiot and will always be an idiot," Cael remarks in a dry tone - but there's somehow just a hint of fondness underlying it, and leaking into her expresssion.
    I was a pretty normal street thug," Cael remarks. "B&E, Grand Theft Auto, illegal racing.... accessory to murder. What's a normal childhood, anyways?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Yeah, well... some things can't be fixed. He just feels like he's gotta play Atlas and put the whole world on his shoulders." Phoebe replies quietly, and purses her lips.

    "I just had criminal trespassing on my rap sheet, but that's set to expire about a month from now."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Mine's been... taken care of. I'm glad you don't have all that weighing down. I was lucky that I had some, well, some understanding prosecutors who saw my testimony as more important than my incarceration," Cael remarks in a dry voice. "Could have gone different, and I'd still be in jain if that were the case."
    She's silent for a few moments before adding, "Sorry about your dad, you know. I- well, I never had one. Didn't have a lot of parental guidance in general." She shrugs her shoulders before adding, "But that's hardly a unique set of circumstances."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Which one, the one that died, the one that ended up being a demon-infested pile of spare parts, or the one who's currently a door on the Silver City because he's a dumb jerk?" Phoebe inquires with her eyebrows raised up, and she shakes her head "You don't have to answer. I'm sorry about all of 'em. They're pretty decent guys." Phoebe pauses a moment, and she reaches up and brushes her fingers past a locket that's under her shirt. "All of them were decent guys."

    "... no. It's not unique. Between when my dad passed and what, July of last year?" her nose wrinkles "My mentor was only like, four years older than me. Now he's my best friend and we yell at each other in Klingon." Phoebe gives a small smile.

    "So, you've had a bit of a rough path behind. Do you feel accomplished when you think of how far you've come?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "The lot of 'em, yeah," Cael answers regardlessly in a wry voice.
    She runs both of her hands through Bear's fur now, much to the dog's delight. He licks at Cael's hands, earning a roll of her eyes, and a shove. "Quit it," she mutters, before adding, "Oh, God, you're one of the 'Trekkies'?" she asks. Safe to say Cael is not.
    Phoebe's question gets serious consideration, however, and it's a few moments before she answers, her voice softer. "I do, yeah," she agrees. "I mean... Path I was on? I could have become a real monster. A murderer. A real drain on society. Now... I mean, when I was working with the NYPD, and the FBI - I'd find kids like me. Kids who were in a bad situation, who didn't think they had options... and I offer them new ones. I try to give them the same chance I had."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Yeah, the lot of them. -- and I wouldn't say we're Trekkies, more kinda all-purpose language geeks? I'm better at Elvish than he is but his pronunciation of Klingon's better than mine. I can understand most of it, but Elvish is my jam." she gives a smile, and she gives a nod.

    "So you saw where your path divided, and you took one road over another. You give Hope, Cael, where there was none. And that's a magic that you can't find in books or magister's scrolls." she smiles.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael lets out a snort. "Well, don't go getting all poetic about it," she remarks in a dry voice. "I help people. I try to leave the world a better place. I- I'm trying to balance the scales - to do my good in my life than harm." She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out before adding, If I can play a role, any role, no matter how small, in stopping Michael... Then mission accomplished. Scales balanced and then some - so we'll see what we can pull off."
    Cael scritches at Bear's head before adding, "Of course, Bear here's only ever been in the black. He's the bestest boy. Right Bear? Yeah." Whenever Cael talks to him - he thumps his tail loudly on the floor tongue lolling out cheerfully.
    Good boy.