5800/Old Treasures

Old Treasures
Date of Scene:	17 November 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Batman, Ekaterina Vespucci

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Batman has posed:
    Bruce Wayne typically prefers the various and sundry Wayne Foundations functions to be held somewhere other than Wayne Manor. They own properties throughout the city - some might argue they own the city itself - and having the soused upper crust staggering about in his home is far from his preferred way to spend an evening. Nevertheless, sometimes there is just no avoiding it and tonight's Wayne Foundation Auction is one such case. A wide variety of valuable items that have been in the possession of the Foundation or the Wayne Family itself are to be put on the block for sale to finance a new wing of Gotham Memorial Hospital.

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
The Contessa Ekaterina Vespucci shows up at said event dressed to the nines in her single piece pencil black dress. She is one of the many attending the auction. Tonight instead of art she has her eye on something innocuous to the outside observer. An artefact of an earlier age. Older than it was thought to be and concealed within a piece of classic art. Just her cup of tea. She looks around for Brucew not knowing whether to talk to him or avoid him at this event. There was a history there - one she had no intention of denying but was this the venue to come clean?

Batman has posed:
    Perhaps Bruce arranged the event in such a way to lure the Contessa in, having recalled his earlier meeting with her as a child. There's no way to tell for certain, and when he passes by her it is with all the seeming of a completely random meeting. He lays on the Bruce Wayne playboy charm, turning his attention on her under the well-practiced guise of the man who has always had an intense if sporadic interest in beautiful women. He pauses, glancing sidelong at her as he clasps a champagne glass in one hand: "Any piece you've got your eye on?"

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
Ekaterina turns her gaze towards the Billionaire momentarily surprised by the man's appearance. Her senses superhuman in quality not having detected the playboys approach. Perhaps she was just distracted - having withdrawn within herself as she was wont to occasionally do. "The man of the hour," Ekaterina says smiling sweetly. "I have a piece I am going to bid on. I'll leave that as a surprise however. Can't be too careful - someone might overhear my intentions and plan accordingly." She looks Bruce up and down and admits casually, "You have grown - grown quite well - since last we met - you must've been all of nine was it?" There it is. The same petite artist who hadn't aged in decades was here again in Bruce's mansion.

Batman has posed:
    "Six," Bruce answers quietly, keeping his voice down in the interest of not drawing too much attention to the immortal in their midst. But the way he casually says it is enough to suggest that, yes, he does remember that meeting and, ostensibly, he knows what she is. Or at least an aspect of what she is. He raises his eyebrows at her slightly: "Grown well? That's quite a compliment. Let me return it - you don't seem like you've aged a day."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"Six - boy and you have a memeory on you as well. Mines eidetic as well. It doesn't lose much in the detail still I get lost in there. It is possible to have too much information - a maddening amount in ones head." Kat picks an olive from a passing snack tray. "I don't think I'll ever remmember all the new flavors of homus though. I remember simpler times when Homus itself was a flavor." Kat smirks quietly to herself and turns her big alluring peepers on Bruce, "Thankyou I guess. Can't believe I picked you for nine when you were six. You must've had an imposing frame or intellect or both back then for me to make that mistake. For the record I've been biologically nineteen or twenty for about 1200 years. Not that I ever did anything to deserve my particular condition. Back then I was Engelberga of Parma - Holy Roman Empress for a spell. I'm even in wikipedia. Wikipedia famous. Never thought I'd ever amount to that," Kat confesses quietly with a wink.

Batman has posed:
    "And I suppose whenever you tell people that," Bruce offers, looking her over critically for a moment, "All they ever want to know is what Emperor Louis was like in person?" He offers a half-smile that is almost his trademark, moving the conversation to a quieter corner of the room: "A Wikipedia page? That is impressive. I stopped looking at mine after they got my birthday wrong."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"I could tell you a bit more about Louis," Kat says coyly, "I had three children with him after all. Arranged marriage - we worked well together till he passed. After that things were a nightmare. I was glad to be deposed at one stage." Kat nabs a glass of champagne. "Noone seems to ask about the Vespucci thing though or my famous stepson Amerigo Vespucci. The best I get out of my men in the security firm that I own is whether Italians invented pasta independently or got it from China via Marco Polo. I don't know for the record. But given what I have read I suspect it is the former as they seem to have had it before Marco in at least 1150 AD." Kat glosses over Amerigo of course.

Batman has posed:
    "Our great continent's namesake," Bruce says with an impressed smile, leaning back to look at her in slight disbelief, "You've had /children/? I'll assume whatever allows you to live as long as you have also maintains your figure. You should sell your secret - you'd make billions." He looks around for a moment, still holding his champagne but not taking a sip of it: "Your secrets safe with me, by the way."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"Thankyou for your confidence. My secret is I am a mutant so I'm not so sure how important it is to keep nowadays. I had coffee with an immortal famous Amazon a few weeks ago whom you might be familiar with. She lives in the open. And I have bloody cell footage of me being killed and ostensibly coming back from the dead floating around out there. There are so many supers I'm not sure I am remarkable enough to merit any secrecy anymore." Kat cant her head sadly, "Yes I three children. one of them died early. The other two did well in life - married well - secured Louis and my legacy. I had to watch them age and die from a distance. I had them before I became what I am. I did not follow their children from that point on. The pain of their loss was too great for me to repeat the experience with grandchildren and great grandchildren."

Batman has posed:
    "I'm sorry to remind you of it," Bruce's voice is quiet and apologetic, a far cry from his typical playboy tone so thick with charm and suggestion, "But I guess you're right. If we can have people flying around in the sky and aliens invading Manhattan then I suppose you being immortal isn't so great a thing. Although, unfortunately, some people still have issues with the whole 'mutant' thing." He doesn't make mention of his own children, perhaps afraid to cause the Contessa any further grief.

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
Kat perks up, "Sorry for being so morose - usually I am not thay way. I guess one picks up ones share of melancholy. I generally prefer not to dwell on it." She smiles at the Billionaire, "I went to Mutant Town the other week and some speedster mutant rebuilt a whole demolished building before the police could arrive to assess a disaster that had been caused by a couple of drug addicted Homo Superions. The whole incident had me ready to join an anti-mutant hate league. And I am a mutant. Sometimes I don't blame the bigots. Superpowered people still are people - it's just that their powers amplify their dysfunctions."

She continues "I mean my kind - my sort of mutant - there are only about eleven of us that I know of - but the bulk of us have fashioned ourselves as Gods with portfolios like the Olympians. The eldest of us - this walking nightmare of a woman - is the Lady of 'Corruption'. I am 'Artifice'. I have a brother in Africa who is in the process of effecting a genocide who has taken up the mantle of 'Fury'. All of us just humans fashioning ourselves after Gods. Arrogant. Still if like out eldest you are close to ten millenia old whos to assert otherwise?"

Batman has posed:
    Bruce's mouth quirks slightly at the tale: "Sounds like a hell of a dysfunctional family." In the guise of Bruce Wayne, there's nothing he can really do about rampaging gods. But that information is most certainly tucked away for the Batman to look into later. They might be outside his Gotham sphere of influence, but that doesn't mean he can ignore them.
    "So, tell me, Contessa," he begins, smoothly transitioning into another topic, "What does the artifice portfolio entail? I take it you're a patron of the arts? We both know you've made an appearance in at least /one/ portrait."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"Artifice. Generally I am the most congenial of my kind. The closest to being the good guy. Artifice is politics, deception and manipulation. That's where I am not so nice," Kat admits, "I always try to do the right thing but often this leads to disaster. And try as I might I repeat the cycle. I sponsored the disaterous Spanish Armada invasion of England. I backed Benito Mussilini in Italy during World War 2. It's an addiction a compulsion to pull strings. The sanguine pulling of threads that link institutions - to manipulate things for the better. And fail half the time miserably. Still I have a 50% higher success rate than most politicians. And I work for free."

Batman has posed:
    Revelation after revelation leaves Bruce at a loss for words. The persona he puts on out of costume cannot afford to be judgmental or critical, so he passes it off with a good-natured if not slightly vapid impressed nod of the head: "That's quite a life you lead. I'd ask if you've ever considered settling down, but I suppose being unable to die makes that seem like a fruitless endeavour. What do you do when you want to have fun and not manipulate the fate of the world?"

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"I have only married twice. Had relatively few paramors. One of your affiliates Tim Drake asked me out recently. I said yes. But that's yet to happen." Yet another revelation. "Actually determining the fate of the world is more an unwelcome addiction I drop out of for centuries at a time before returning to it compulsively sometimes unconsciously. I'm more a full time artist than anything. I run commercial galleries all over the US. Teach Art History at a Community College in Queens. Frankly I'd rather stick to something harmless like that. But if I were to retire completely the nastier members of my tribe would simply expand to fill the space I leave unoccupied and go unchallenged. Besides I sort of cannot as I have said.'

Batman has posed:
    "Tim did?" Bruce raises his eyebrows, considering that for a moment, "Well, he's a busy young man. He might be trying to make sure he arranges things just so." He folds his arms over his chest, putting his untouched champagne glass down on a nearby table, "I suppose you're right about the others of your group. Better the devil you know."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"The devils you know are still devils in my experience which is why they require management. I'm sure you have to keep the wolves from your door in your corporation. Same thing for me - it just has been going on alot longer and with appreciably higher stakes. But enough of that. Tell me about your guests here. Anyone I should watch out for if I am making a bid? Any sharks in these here waters?" Kat surveys the crowd - taking advantage of the quiet corner to corner Bruce for aome discrete advice.

Batman has posed:
    "Oh, I don't know," Bruce says airily, looking around the room for a moment, "I guess the Kanes might swoop in on you, they could certainly afford it. But they might not ... if the Waynes don't want something, then they probably won't either. Typical second-richest family nonsense. Unfortunately's it's never really about charity here."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"Gotcha," Kat says smiling, "I usually fly under the radar being neither the pretiest nor the richest and certainly not the tallest at these events. I think I'll get my lot when it is auctioned," Kat turns her attention back to Bruce. "So eh that painting of me - was that the first naked lady you ever saw?" Way to make it awkward Kat.

Batman has posed:
    Bruce looks a little taken aback by the question, his brow furrowing slightly as he seems for the first time at a loss for words, "I suppose so. I don't remember thinking about it at the time. Just the two faces looked similar - and now I feel disinclined to revisit the painting in the book since I wouldn't want you to feel embarrassed."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"Darn that Sandro Botticelli. If I could turn back time I'd get him drunk and paint him nude." Kat says this shaking her head and turnign a little red. "It was the naked selfie of my era. Still it could be worse. I could have been painted by Pablo Picaso and be trying to convince everybody that the girl in the picture is me rather than voiciferously denying it."

Batman has posed:
    "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about," Bruce adds, appearing mildly amused at the Contessa's embarrassment, "It's a nice portrait, for whatever that's worth. I don't necessarily think it's something to be too embarrassed about. Besides, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle - that image is out there now. Information age and all."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"That it is," Kat agrees, "You'll have to drop by one of my galleries when I am in town - I'm sure that you need to circulate. Can't keep you all to myself. People will talk." Kat as susal has half a point at least.

Batman has posed:
    "I suppose so," Bruce admits, looking around for a moment before turning his attention back to Kat, "It was nice to meet you again, Contessa." He pauses a moment and reaches into his pocket, producing a very familiar coin from many, many years ago. He holds it up for her to see before making it vanish with all the talent of a season magician. He says nothing more, turning and walking back into the crowd of people.