Log:Morals over Chili Fries

Opinions and Morals 2020/07/18 Magda Grimm Porter 2

Magda can't repress a smile and a low laugh as she enters behind the two of you; stopping with her hands on her hips, she considers, and then shifts her own clothing into a poodle skirt, high-necked short-sleeve blouse, and a neck scarf tied on one side; a stray piece of 'cloth' snakes up to gather her hair into a ponytail. "I never really got much of the Americana of the era," she confesses with a smile, "but we got some of it, in Israel."

"Yes!" Porter exclaims as they walk in. "Chili cheese fries! And burgers! And shakes!" He may have a few favorites... or he's just working his way down the menu? "This was all way before me, but I like the whole retro thing. Double retro? Mega retro?" He just knows it's really, really old stuff.

Grimm shrugs indifferently at first until she turns to see the costume change she could feel through the shift of shadows. She raises a pierced brow. "Never really saw the appeal. But their chili cheese fries and fried zucchini are the best." She nods to Porter's exclamations. "Right, and their shakes," she notes, smiling at his enthusiasm in spite of herself. It's a bit infectious.

"Everyone has their teenage years," replies Magda, looking around and following the others into a classic diner booth. "Mine ... are not to be repeated, but the Nineteen-Fifties had a certain vivacity that only a post-war period can have. The greater the impact of the war, the bigger and longer the vivacity. It can be argued that the, mmm, lust for life, if you will, lasted from after World War Two until the late '60's and the Vietnam era." She grins at Porter, and adds, "Milkshakes, however, are one of the great popularities I'm glad were invented."

Porter flops into a seat on one of the benches and hmms. "Really? I ... don't really know that much about history. Well, not that part. The 20s were interesting. Flappers and Prohibition and gangsters and all that. And, like, ancient Egypt with the pyramids and everything. And cats! I like cats." He waves and welcomes Grimm into the booth. Since he can't pull out chairs or anything, he feels like he should do something. "Be nice to have the lively times without wars, though."

Grimm scoots in after Porter at his waving, slipping off her messenger bag again and setting it next to her. "Mm. I've been watching a lot of noir movies from the 30's and 40's lately," she comments as she settles in. She grins a little at the cats comment.

"Wars make people realize how precious life is. Makes us want more life, more prosperity, to fight back against poverty and rationing and everything you lose." Magda smiles, a glint in her intensely blue eyes. "Sex and children." She takes a menu from the rack at the side of the table, and peruses it, discovering that it might well be a replica of a 50's diner menu as well. "And the lessons of helping your neighbor out aren't usually lost until the prosperity falls off, too, which makes for good citizenship." She glances slyly sideways at Grimm. "Which of course ties into the whole 'treat your neighbor as yourself' Golden Rule thing I was on about."

"Yeah, but..." Porter sighs. "I mean, there's gotta be easier ways than, you know, a whole bunch of people fighting and dying. That just... sucks. Alot. Can't people just be happy just because?" He thinks about pointing out that people have, well, kids, even when there wasn't some big battle, but decides to pick up and look at a menu, instead.

The old-young woman nods, the silver hair in her ponytail bobbing. "There is, and we're at the cusp of it," she agrees, ordering a chocolate shake, a bacon cheeseburger ("no onion"), and the apparently-to-die-for chili cheese fries. "Exploration and expansion. Granted, that usually is accompanied by wars, but there seems to be an at-least-okay chance that this time we're outclassed enough we won't be trying to start a fight, just ... go elsewhere. Beyond. To see what's over the next hill."

Grimm wrinkles her nose a little. "Sex and kids, huh? I can think of a more fun combination," she comments with a bit of a smirk at the implication. "Mm. Golden rule. Right," she comments, not grabbing a menu. She's been here enough times, she already knows what she wants.

"Kids are pretty fun!" Porter agrees with Grimm. "Though they can kind of put a damper on the other thing." He orders himself chili cheese fries with extra onion, bacon cheeseburger with extra onion, and a strawberry shake. No onion in the shake.

"Yeah, when they're not yours," Gabrielle says cheekily with a smile. She orders a neapolitan shake and her own order of chili cheese fries. Just chili cheese fries.

Magda gives a tight smile to Grimm and, somewhat, to Porter as well. "Well, wars are started because people couldn't live by that rule, aren't they? A young man was very publically tortured to death a couple of thousand years ago, Mr. Porter, for asking the very same thing -- and teaching it, too. People want to do it, but especially for the last hundred years, people are caught between taking care of themselves and their families, and taking care of their community. And the people who start wars, the leaders of countries and religions, get greedy -- /they/ did this, /they/ aren't human, /they/ have something we deserve to have." She shrugs, adding a Coke onto her order. "The root cause of evil isn't money, it's the love of money -- the lust for it, the desire to have more than what you need. I have a lot of it, so one of the things I'm trying to do is to make it so people don't /have/ that need to steal, or kill, or blow things up in order to feed their kids, or be forced to choose between eating and having a roof over their head, or getting health care. I don't stop bank robbers any more, because banks have insurance. Most people who are out to rob the bank are in it for one of two reasons -- they need the money for something, or because they're looking for excitement. The ones that need money, I'm trying to deal with. For now, anyhow, I'll let the social worker at the coffee shop work on -- but even then, she's trying to keep kids off drugs and whatever. People go /on/ those things because they see no hope. Which, again," she notes, "I'm trying to provide."

Porter nods at each point. "Hey, I'm all for helping people. So they don't think they need to do that kind of things. It's probably just getting them to want to in the first place."

Grimm nods along with Porter a bit. "As for keeping kids off drugs, they're gonna do what they think is cool. It'd have to be a utopia to eliminate people wanting to do drugs, but they don't just due it because things are hopeless."

Magda smiles. "'Doing', no. The Scandinavian countries solved /that/ problem fifty years ago, though; addiction and homelessness are virtually nonexistent in Northern Europe. But people here ..." She shrugs. "People here would prefer someone else do it, and that it doesn't cost them personally a ... dime, correct? A dime." She shrugs. "It's going to cost someone. And like I said ..." She waves a hand, brushing that portion of the discussion off. "However, those projects, at least for me, are the end result of a lot of thought, and a lot of money. The question young heroes like yourselves need to answer, eventually, is what good you are doing when you do what you do, and how better you /could/ help by doing it differently. Letting petty crimes happen in order to focus your attention on their root causes; stopping vast crimes from happening when you must, but working on /their/ root causes as well. I can do nothing about religious paranoia, but I /can/ begin to do something about making sure that every single child in the world has as full and great an education as every other." She flips her finger down to point at Porter. "Who would disagree with that? A full education for all?"

"Not me. I think that's a great idea!" Porter is quick to agree. "... but, like you said, somebody's gotta pay for that. I'd do it, but I think that may be a bit much for my account, even. Maybe after some investments or something? I mean, there'll always be some people that aren't happy or want to do bad stuff, but less is still better."

Grimm raises an eyebrow skeptically. "They still do drugs, though. It's just legalized in some of the countries and treated as a medical issue. There's still homelessness in those countries. Not as bad here, sure." She rolls her shoulder a bit as she thinks on what Magda says. "That's great and all, but I'm not a social worker. And I'm not rich. There's not much I can do about that stuff."

Magda shakes her head, smiling. "Would you agree that a full and complete education -- through the end of high school, and four years of whatever studies, whether college or trade, afterwards -- would be good for every child?"

Grimm rolls her eyes. "Of course. That'd be swell. Who wouldn't want that to be free for everyone?"

Magda lifts a finger. "Details -- not free, just good." She points the finger at Porter. "Can you think of anyone who wouldn't agree?"

Porter pauses as his food arrives. Early? Maybe? He snitches a fry. It could be a mistable. After chomping, he nods. "Yeah. It is. I mean, we already have that in most places. Free or affordable even."

Magda leans back as the rest of the food arrives, shakes and chili cheese fries all around, burgers for two. "/All/ of Africa? Asia, Southeast or not? No, of course not. And religious fanatics kidnap entire classrooms to ensure that some do not -- girls over here, boys over there. And /that/," she says, looking sideways at Grimm, "is when I go do the superhero thing; that's when I've always done the superhero thing. Most of /my/ work is beyond these shores, for just that reason." She takes a long swallow of the shake, and 'mmmmms' in appreciation. "Nice. The question isn't whether you're rich, Miss Gabrielle, it's whether or not you can use the abilities you've been granted, or acquired, or learned -- all of them, from athleticism to whatever you studied in school -- to make the world a better place each day. Not by fighting crime, or at least not /just/ by fighting crime, but by doing ... whatever it is you can do. Turn desert into farmland. Teach a child to tie his own shoes. Whatever that will make the world an incrementally better place tomorrow. To make your neighbor ... a stronger, better person."

Grimm grabs a fry from her plate, carefully picking one loaded with chili, cheese, and onions. "I don't tend to do the Sentinel gig of going across all boarders, being a patriot. I'm more busy dealing with criminal cases, and supernatural and interdimensional threats," she says rather casually before popping the fry in her mouth. "But we need people like thaa..aaa...hot!" The fries are pipping fresh. She quickly slurps down some of her milkshake.

"You know, it doesn't take metas to do that stuff," Porter offers up between bites. "I mean, anybody can help a neighbor, or teach kids, or make the world a better place. It's on everybody, not just a few. Besides, everybody deserves to have their own lives, too, right? That's why I mostly retired. It's great helping the world and all, but shouldn't have to ignore the people you care about to do it."

Magda nods, cutting her burger in half before picking it up and starting in on it. "In part, yes. Which is why I curse the /last/ '70s and '80's and their 'more for me, fuck all of you' attitude. Building a community means making people dependent on each other, invested in each other, and we lost that." She sighs, eyeing the hot fries, then dipping one (and its bacon and cheese) into her shake to cool it off before eating it. "We can say it's on everyone, yes. But why not show that it's also on us? And get them to help others in turn. An avalanche and a single pebble sort of thing."

Grimm recovers a bit, and hasn't learned her less. Maybe. She goes for another fry. But this time gives it time to cool. "Yeah, that attitude really sucks. I'm not sure how you -make- people invested in each other, though."

Magda -- Freedom -- sighs, biting into her hamburger and chewing slowly. "I don't know either," she admits. "Still working on it."

Porter nods to Magda. "You're right. That's why we do. Probably every day for the smaller stuff, and not quite every day for the bigger stuff. Helping people, helping them help others, and help themselves, and all that. However we can. But... yeah, you can't, like, change the whole world in like five minutes." Well, Ok, technically you -can-, but...

Magda gives Porter a smile. "Which is why figuring out what to do, and why to do it, and why, sometimes, you have to stand back and let the little one burn themselves in the fire or cut themselves with the knife, is so very, /very/ important. And why, sometimes, you have to warn off all airplane flights before returning Kinshasa to the Stone Age." Which is something she did waaay back in 2014, draining all power and disassembling all technological items in an eighty-mile radius. The bloodbath, as long-oppressed civilians overran the army and government, was ... catastrophic. But the next government was better, as were the people.

Grimm shrugs weakly. "I just make sure to vote. I attend a few protests every now and then. I don't know what else I can do that wouldn't be...I dunno, forcing my powers onto others."

Grimm raises an eyebrow. "Kinshasa? What?" That was before her time.

Magda shrugs. "You experiment with your powers. You discover all the things you /can/ do, then you decide which ones are ethical /to/ do." She gives Grimm a tight non-smile. "Not my best day, but it needed to happen."

Porter noms down more fries, to be washed along by some nearly-skull-imploding slurps of his shake. Followed by momentary brain freeze. After blinking and rubbing a temple a few times, he asks, "Is this what's in your classes, too? You know... if you give it all away, now, you won't get as many people to sign up."

"That's why I don't experiment with my powers too much. I don't want to know how far I can push things," Gabrielle murmurs in a concerned tone as she nibbles on another fry.

Magda laughs at Porter's question and commentary. "That's one of the examples, yes. The hard part for them is to figure out whether or not I did the right thing -- because /my/ answer, then or now, is not necessarily the /right/ answer." She shifts her gaze to Grimm and says, "On the contrary. You /must/ experiment with your abilities. If you do not know their limits, at some point you will have to go to them, all unknowing, and achieve utter /disaster/. Because you couldn't push beyond them when you needed to, or because you didn't know you could go that far, and far outmatched the need." She shrugs and adds, "If you're worried about side effects and property damage, let me know -- I'm willing to get you to a nicely remote area. Mars, let's say."

Grimm sinks a little in her seat, now just grabbing a fry and poking around formations of chili on her plate. "I...I still don't think that's a good idea. The source of my abilities aren't...aren't safe. No matter where I use them. It's...complicated," she says, not making eye contact. Her eyes are on her chili, but they're unfocused as she thinks on some incidents in the past. Such as Porter teleporting her away from the city as she lost control of her powers, to a deserted island where she couldn't hurt anyone but him.

"I think I've done enough experimenting just trying to figure things out," Porter shares, with a mouthful of fries. He pauses the swallow, possibly with some chewing beforehand. "It was pretty rough. I think everybody's probably safer with me going in not knowing, than messing around to try and know anymore. Besides," he adds, with a hopeful smile, "I've never let not knowing stop me from trying to help." Because that's what heroes do?

Magda nods, letting the matter ... well, recede, anyhow. "You'll change your mind," she predicts. "Eventually. Let me know when you do; chances are I'll still be around." She smiles, and samples her half-empty shake again. "But anyhow. That's part of the ethics course too -- self-knowledge." She gives Porter a sly smile. "And yes, there's a suitably disastrous personal example for discussion with that one, too."

Porter gives Grimm a supportive smile, and reaches out a hand to pat her shoulder. "It's Ok." He then gives Magda a similar smile. "I'm grateful you're trying to help, but everybody's a little different. Has to figure out their own stuff, you know? It's like what you're saying for everyone else. One thing won't work for everybody, even if it sounds really good."

Grimm shovels another fry in her mouth while self-reflecting. She's thinking about villains like Jean-Michael Lereau and Victor Price. Mad mages bent on sacrificing everything to their elder gods.

She's pulled out of her thoughts when Porter pats her shoulder, looking up to him and offering a weak smile. "I...I dunno. Maybe I should, with all the monsters I have to deal with. I'll...figure something out." Maybe go to a dead dimension and try cutting loose.

Magda regards Grimm for a little bit. "I know," she agrees with Porter, then adds, "but one of the things you learn how to do when you find out everything you can do, all of your limits, is how to /stop/ doing it, right in the middle of it all. And it sounds like that's pretty important to you, Ms. Gabrielle. We older folk, we do know a thing or two -- and like I said back at the coffee shop, I'm a pretty good ear to talk into." She glances at the diner's wall-clock, then says to Porter, "Getting late, and you have groceries to pick up."

Grimm looks up at the clock as she finishes her fries. "Oh shick. I gotta get this book back to the Great Library. I'm not supposed to keep it overnight," she startles.

Magda nods, sliding out of the booth and stepping back to let Gabrielle out. "My office door's always open," she says to both of them, and offers her hand to each to shake farewell.

Grimm slips out with her messenger bag, stealing one last fry before she goes. She shakes Magda's hand with her clean one. "Thanks for the talk. I'll keep that in mind," she says with a polite smile. She waits for Porter to shake hands before offering a hug goodbye.

Porter gives Magda's hand a shake, then turns to Gabrielle. Wow. Two offers in one day?! Grimm must really be in a good mood... and he can't not repay that. First, he gives her a big hug. Second, he grins. Third is "Well, if you're in a hurry, lemme help!" And last, but not least...

FLASHTHWUMP

The both vanish. Ostensibly to The Great Library Speedy Book Return!

Which Porter probably should've asked where that was, first.