Ashes To Ashes

[Pharlen]

Roni had taken the whole day to consider some of the things that Mist had talked to her about last night. She feigned sick with Zagan and her court duties for the day, and spent it in her office.

Do you remember a guy that's been
In such an early song?
I've heard a rumor from Ground Control
Oh no, don't say it's true

She sorted through her case files. The over flow, low priority cases. Cheating spouses, people she hadn't heard from in months, people who had cases lead to dead ends. They all went in a pile.

There was a pile for all the cases that Mist said she found her focus with. Preventing others from ending up having lives that were like hers. And a third pile that ended with cases that she just took to take, nothing that struck a fancy, cases that she could pass on and not feel guilty about.

It was the first pile of the three that wemt into a bag, and came with her when she left her office, shortly after the sun set. Roni's path led her down to the beach. It had been a while, and briefly, her thoughts ticked back to a time when her biggest worry was evading Zagan, and it was just her and Siobhan against the world.

Traveling from place to place, where ever the whim took them. Simple days. Her boots were kicked off and left at the sand wall, before she pushed forward, into the sand, and towards the water.

Well, well, well, there went one of Jack's pet fae. One that he hadn't tried to kill, so there was that. Roni must have a shine or a spark or just nice tits.

They got a message from the Action Man
"I'm happy, hope you're happy too
I've loved all I've needed, love
Sordid details following"

So, leaned to a lifeguard tower, like some leftover noir detective in a shabby duster coat and a dog ugly fedora, a grin cut across her face like the Joker was her daddy -- madame governor herself. But she seemed to be off the clock. Or something.

An aluminum locking clipboard in one hand, a large tapestry carpetbag at her feet, and Pharlen tilted her head to get a good look at Roni, that grin never failing.

Roni, at first glance, had written the beach off as empty. Which she was okay with. It meant that if she fell apart to any varying degree, there wouldn't be any witness. Totally okay with. There was more on her mind than she was letting on to well.. pretty much everyone.

Kinda except for Mist. He knew more than most, and only because he was good at getting things out of her. Roni forged on in the sand until her feet found the sand that was damp from the waves, and more firm, but far away enough from the crash of the waves.

There seemed to be a moment of consideration, before Roni plopped down in the sand, and started digging in her messenger bag, until she had a case file. Then she flipped it open, plucked up a picture, and let it go. The wind carried it into the waves, which hungrily swallow the picture whole. And soon... one by one, every piece of paper in the file met the same fate.

The shrieking of nothing is killing, just
Pictures of Jap girls in synthesis and I
Ain't got no money and I ain't got no hair
But I'm hoping to kick but the planet it's glowing

Interesting, interesting, yes yes. Pharlen pushed off the structure and paced after Roni, low and head tilted, like a lazy coyote. Grinning still, rictus and strange. Smoked lenses on her glasses, white hair in a nice neat pony tail down her back, she padded up behind the little fae as she cast her worries to the winds.

Or her career?

Pharlen reached up to snag a random paper, and glanced over it before she let it fly with the others. She dropped to a crouch behind and beside Roni, arching a pale brow.

"Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junky..." Pleasant voice on a sing-song, her head tilting back and forth as if she was tracking Roni to see her in all dimensions.

The sound of a paper rustling, and not from the wind had Roni's attention snapping towards Pharlen. Quiet, she watched her a moment. All of her encounters with Des' mother had been unique, to say the least. She still even kept the journal the woman had gifted her. Her words gave her pause, before she grinned.

"May be true, but at least m'feelin' a lil' spunky." Cuz why not add on to the rhyme. The folder was empty. It was enough to send Roni digging for another. "These ones aren't important. Dead ends, people who don't want ta be found. Broken hearts in the makin'. Trivial. Meaningless, and things that'll pass. Perhaps painfully, but it'll pass." There were two beats, and this time she flung free several papers.

"It is menial work n'unfulfillin'."

"It's all important, dearling, but whether or not you can find the hearts of the matter... Most of these would do best to walk away. And you? Yes? No?" Peculiar, Pharlen's head tilting side to side, all the while peering at Roni's face. Into her eyes.

How far had Roni been diving into her own personal well? Were there traceries of black and purple growing into pale skin, were feathers sprouting in darkling hair, was the wild heart of her still burning bright?

Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low

Pharlen lifted the old timey wire rim glasses, and peered into Roni's eyes like looking into a keyhole. No sweeping elegant matron for this evening, just another creature of the night, fresh off work.

"What has happened?"

"It can't be. Not to me. Not any more." Another fistful of papers go flying, another empty folder tossed aside. "I can't keep stretchin' myself out fer everthin'. I can't fix all the problems of people 'round me, or tryin' ta employ me any more than I can fix half of my own."

More rustling, and this time Roni pulled free the rest of the stack. There were many files.

"Mist did the pesky pain n'the ass big brother thing n'made me realize things I was tryin' ta ignore." There was a heavy sigh, though, Pharlen's gaze caught hers, and kept it. Most of all, Roni looked tired.

"I gotta find me again. I'm... not..." Roni paused, and gave a wild gesture at her. "me. I dunno if that sounds crazy... but." Her shoulders rolled.

Time and again I tell myself
I'll stay clean tonight

Strangely, there was a vampire on the beach. It was Lesinda, ambling along the waterline and deftly avoiding the saltwater that threatened knee high leather boots, so one could at least assume that while she might not look it, she was aware of where she was. It was odd that she was here inso far as that she preferred cobblestone to sand and that this stretch of beach was becoming crowded at so late an hour.

Not that Les noticed, she was locked on autopilot from her normal later day walk through the city which has some how needed up with a walk over the sands. Sands upon which her gaze was fixed, staring down at her feet as one passed over the other. She might even pass the other women by all together and never know it.

"You are not you," Pharlen agreed easily, reaching over to riffle fingers through Roni's hair. "Where have you gone? You gave away so much to keep from losing what you had, and now...? Now you are struggling."

Mist may pick and choose words, Pharlen didn't. Or she didn't always. Her head turned as she heard, smelled, Lesinda moping along. Another peculiar sight for the lovely beachside. Her brows quirked.

"Lesinda?" she called. "You are sleepwalking, and I was rather certain you'd learned that could lead to very bad things, yes yes."

The more Roni voiced it, the more she heard it, the more it sank in. She wasn't Roni. There's a soft mrr of a sound when Pharlen's fingers ruffle her hair.

"I dunno, but I think I'm taking steps away from things so I can try and find me again." Roni said softly. Pharlen's words hit home. She had indeed, sacrificed a lot to keep what little she held dear. She'd do it a million times again. Still.

Even if Siobhan was drowning herself in booze just like Roni did, she'd rather have her friend as a drunk than a dead body.

But the little green wheels are following me
Oh no, not again

"I dunno where ta start, but... I'll figure it out." Roni's cheeks puffed out, and she flung yet another fistful of papers to the wind. Then her attention shifted towards the vampire, who she regarded curiously.

There was a slow blink. A side step from the water as it crest the sand again. Then Lesinda looked up at the sound of her own name and it seemed to an observer that she was mentally shifting gears before she blinked again.

"Pharlen." Les gaze shuffled to the girl throwing paper to the seas embrace, Les didn't know her as far as she was aware, and then ticked back to Pharlen again, whom the vampiress approached. "I was just out for a walk..."

"Come and say hello to Roni," Pharlen encouraged, more like a placid mum at the park, gesturing over one of her kid's schoolmates, and indicating of course, come there for the hug. "Yes? You are walking as if you are following your soul somewhere you haven't seen. Or to find something you've forgotten."

Les was dragging along, it seemed to be the season for it.

Hugs are good, and if there was one in the offering, Lesinda would take it without a second's thought. Pharlen fell into that category of trust snugly.

"Mm." That was an interesting way of putting it, following her soul somewhere Lesinda hadn't seen. Rather fitting if one thought about it, although she couldn't think anything she needed to find, then again it wouldn't be forgotten if she could think of it, would it?

"Maybe." Les agreed with a half nod. And then her attention slid over to Roni. She smiled! "Hello."

"What have you been doing, dearling? It has been a long while since I've seen you walking about, let alone not hiding in a corner reading, yes yes," Pharlen inquired, hug tiem indeed, and a smooch to the cheek, and lastly, hair petting. Pharlen didn't actually think of them as adorable lap dogs, or fluffy cats. Maybe. Possibly. Either way, free affection, lap it up.

If affection was a drug, Les was an addict, and free just made the deal better. She'd nuzzle at Pharlen's shoulder and shrugged gently.

"I've been around. Mostly at Helston mansion I suppose." Speaking of addiction, Les eyes did have the far away, wide look of the drugged.

A glance at her attire of shirt, vest, skirt and stockings assured that this appeared a voluntary state. Pharlen might even, if she were familiar with a certain masked nightmare, recognize the scent of Skid's special leaves on Les's breath. Not very strong, but damn near the only narcotic Les could physically imbibe without violently throwing up soon after.

"I've not seen Mathian is a while." Lesinda added and this statement was coloured with some quietly malicious pleasure.

I'm stuck with a valuable friend
"I'm happy, hope you're happy too"
One flash of light but no smoking pistol

"Ah. Is he dead... deader, do you think? There is something you have in common with Roni, yes. A pain in the ass that appears and disappears randomly." Pharlen's voice was so very dry, and there were many things she could taste on the scents, from perfume to misery and Skid to the places where the leaves might come from, though she sifted through them for what was useful. "There is a new school here that could use teachers, by the way. The new one in Kabuki street."

Lesinda shook her head softly. No, if he were dead....well, she would know, and she would not be drowning out depression with the weapon she had to hand. There was a considering look a Roni then, but her eyes moved back to Pharlen. "Kabuki Street?" Now why was this familiar to her...

I never done good things (I never done good things)
I never done bad things (I never done bad things)
I never did anything out of the blue, woh-o-oh

"Mmhm. It's where Eri and Izumi hang out, you remember them, yes? Pachinko and ramen and pho and larceny and Redcaps." There, that explained it all, didn't it? "They were rebuilding a new school, and I found funds for them in the old accounts. Here." Pharlen paused in her pettings and took out her phone. Soon, she had the school's web site up.

"Mm" Lesinda nodded. She remembered Izumi in the way one remembered a whirlwind after it passed you by and she looked over at Pharlen's phone as a name jumped out at her. "Mallory Maeda...I met her the other day."

Roni had grown quiet, lost in her thoughts, deeper than she ever would of liked to admit. She shook her head, let a half aware look drift between Pharlen and Lesinda.

"Somethin' in common?" Roni repeated with a slow blink. A look to the papers left in her hands. One beat. Two. Three, they found the air and sailed once more.

Want an axe to break the ice
Wanna come down right now

"I know Mallory." Roni said with the sound of someone attempting to keep up with conversation she was out of the loop on.

"Yes yes. Meet her again. Tell her you would like to teach." Pharlen noted to Les, and then turned to Roni, her brows lifted.

"I will tell you a story. There was a little girl, so pretty and so sweet, that an evil man could not contain himself, and took what wasn't his. And each time she escaped, he pursued. Until." Pharlen's head shook. "Until."

The story hadn't ended yet. She looked to Les, then she looked to Roni, and fully expected that they had followed what she'd said.

Sorry, there was something very interesting going on with Lesinda's green hair at that moment, it just demanded her undivided attention as Pharlen spoke her short story.

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom's a junkie
Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low

Pharlen was creepy just like Des was in that way. Knowing things. And putting them together. It must be inherited. Roni was quiet. There was a look that slid towards Lesinda, before she decidedly selected another couple handfuls of papers to throw to the wind, almost aggressively.

"Until the day he breathes his last." That was whispered, softly, tentatively, like the wind could snatch the whispers away and carry them to unfriendly ears.

Lesinda looked back at Roni through a small curtain of green. And then she leaned on Pharlen's shoulder because she wanted another hug, please.

Pharlen reveled in her creep. She easily curled an arm around Les for a warm cuddle.

"No one needs to be alone, you see." Pharlen explained in a content murmuring. She perked a bit at that tone of Roni's, as if she had been waiting for it, hadn't heard it in too long, who knew? She reached her finger over to Roni's chest, and touched over her heart.

"You start at the beginning. Remember. Remember." Like her fingertip touched water, there were ripples running away from that point within Roni's heart.

Time had hidden much within those papers and photos and frustration and pain and loss that Roni was casting away, and now, from now, those memories would become more clear. Until she could see them whole. A little gift, a little curse.

Yes, warm cuddles. Pharlen gave some of the best, this was fact. Les nuzzled again, before fishing her hip flask out if her pocket and took a measure of its content. It smelled of iron and was probably not as appetizing to the other two as it was for the vampiress.

There was a shift, a faint stretch where Roni's hand moved to hover just above Les's shoulder, no contact though. A quiet respectful offer of someone who's been there too, if she's suspecting what Pharlen's nudging at.

Then Pharlen pulled Roni's attention again, a touch, a finger to her chest, just where her heart resided. There were chills that ran with the ripples, sent a shiver up her spine.

"I don't like rememberin'." Roni murmured softly, a weak protest to a fight she's certain she's already lost.

"What you need is where you don't want to look," Pharlen responded, absently winding her other arm around Roni's shoulders. A breath taken, and ... she purred. She purrs. Just like a cat. Welcome to the cuddle puddle.

My mother said, to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom

See, Pharlen purring just reminds Les of Kitty, and that isn't a bad thing at all. Although it did make her pine for special hugs. Remembering was painful, better to take another dried up leaf from you pocket, set it on your tongue and suck until it crumbled into pieces and left you feeling much better then before.

This was a thing Les did, after she recapped her flask and set it nearly back in her pocket. For right now, shed enjoy the company of a dear friend and a person who really did know what it was like.

Remembering was painful, but for Roni, it seemed like it was going to happen, whether she wanted it to or not. She was tense, when Pharlen's arm first found her shoulders, before she finally, sighed, and gave in to relaxing against Pharlen.

Then after a moment or two, she offered a hand out for Les. Simple contact in solidarity, while she wondered whether or not Mist talked to Pharlen. She had no idea. It was possible. That or she just needed to stop ignoring things.

My mother said, to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom

Mist is a lovely flunky to Pharlen. Far more likely she ran into Jack. But, she wasn't saying. There was a warm lilting to the purring, and easily giving the affection both of them so desperately needed. She had her Mom on.

Lesinda reached out a gloved hand and took Roni's when it was offered. It was good contact, and Pharlen, she was wearing gloves again. Nice leather ones, cooler than was normal, but then the girl with the blood red eyes, green hair and alabaster skin was not normal. Which meant she was in good company.

"Your stories still are being told," Pharlen noted, absent, lifting her head slightly to watch the draw and pull of the ocean. A flicker of smile at her lips. It was far more of an auspicious meeting than they might know, for now. Possibly, in time, a force to reckon with. Odd to see what was strength currently just a pair of girls who struggled so hard.

My mother said, to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom

Roni wasn't often exposed to good healthy mom vibes often. So when she was it was like a sunflower getting sun after being deprived for days. She sat and soaked it up. Les' hand in hers, she gave it a gentle squeeze, and a happy hum.

"We're not there yet, but a buncha people say things get better... sooo." Soft. There was a touch of a playful tone to those words. Then her attention shifted back to Pharlen. "Which means they're undefined, and unpredictable. Shape-able if I wish?"

"It is what I have always said. What you make of it." Pharlen nodded. Did they need her permission to raise hell, kick up a ruckus, make others take their names in vain? She was happy to give it. Chaos was not her middle name, but it was always close behind her, after all.

My mother said, to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom

"They have guided you both to think a certain way, because then, they know before you do what you will do. But there are other ways to think, yes, yes."

Perhaps they did. Or they needed that nudge to light the fire! Either way, Roni seemed to listen again as Pharlen spoke, and considered.

"Different ways ta think take time. I think fer tonight, I'm gunna go find my bed n'my cat. Tomorrow I can think about it." Softly spoken, before she gave Les' hand another squeeze, and produced a card from somewhere. "If ya ever wanna talk or just hang out n'get coffee or somethin'." Awkwardly, came the offer, but it was an attempt.

"Mm. I need to see about working," Pharlen agreed, humorously, another warm hug given before she slid back to her feet. Spirits knew what that would be, but she was usually serious about it. "Take care, both of you, yes yes." More like or else, she likely would be peeved if they didn't take care.

My mother said, to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom

"May yer work go fast." This is mused to Pharlen as Roni leaned in for one last hug and dose of mom energy for the time being, It lingered a little longer than it should, but she let go. "I will try. No promises." Finger wiggles, before she chucked the last of her folders to the air.

One step, two, three, and Pharlen was gone into the darkness as if she'd never been...

Roni was slower at it, but eventually, she collected her shoes, and was gone, off towards home. Lesinda rose to her feet and continued her slow and lonely walk.

My mother said, to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom

((Written with Roni and Lesinda, "Ashes To Ashes" by David Bowie))