7287/1000 Faces: Oh No, You Didn't!

1000 Faces: Oh No, You Didn't!
Date of Scene:	09 August 2021
Location:	The Laughing Magician
Synopsis:	In the aftermath of Nergal's apparent attack, Phoebe gets a little more insight into the situation and an offer she's not expecting. Chas gets a new roommate.
Cast of Characters:	John Constantine, Phoebe Beacon

---

John Constantine has posed:
    No sign of the demon responsible for the mess horrors outside the Laughing Magician, just John standing there still screaming about deals for a few more minutes until finally he stops and mutters, "Feckin' lily livered bastard."

    Chas is just standing there, looking shell shocked, truly, his mouth's agape - working like he wants to say something - eyes wide.

    The surface of what's happened here is easy to read. John's just offered himself to a demon in exchange for help and, well, either the demon didn't take the deal or the asshole's thinking about it.

    The deeper bits, like why John's still all blistered - although those are fading - and why Chas just seems *so* floored by it all might take a little more information for true understanding.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Yes. More information. More understand, and more importantly -- "Let's get him back inside the wards before the choices are weighed." Phoebe states to Chas, "This sounds like information that *should* be shared. I can try to ease those blisters and pus in the meantime." Phoebe states, taking a step back and gery gently reaching for John's shoulder to guide him back inside the Laughing Magician, because really that's all she can think of doing -- though she looks to Chas for guidance on this one.

    John, obviously, is having a mental break.

John Constantine has posed:
    Finally Chas finds his voice. And, apparently, his ability to move in general. "What did you *do*?!" he bellows at John before snagging his smaller friend by the lapels of that trench coat and shaking him around like a little rag doll. "WHAT DID YOU DO, JOHN?!" Rhetorical that question, Chas knows what John just did.

    There's no guiding, there's just pulling and shoving and a growled out, "Get inside, asshole."

    John stumbles down the steps and hits the ground hands and knees at the bottom, but he's up in a flash, literal hellfire burning in those faded denim blues, "What would you have me do, Chas?! Sit on my ass and let the underworld be taken by ONE POWER?!"

    Poor Phoebe!

    Chas snatches him again and draws back a fist. A frozen moment in time happens, longer than a beat, and the best mate and world's greatest cabbie ever shoves John away, the fist never flies. "Fuck you, John," he spits before stalking toward the back room. "Might wanna tell Meggan what you've done," he calls over his shoulder before muttering, "*Fecking ASSHOLE*," under his breath.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    OH good. They're of similar mind. Phoebe brings up the rear, her glowstick coming to bear now as if in a warning -- similar to a kitten hissing at a pack of wolves -- and then she comes inside, passing through the wards and coming upon John on the ground. She pauses, stiffening, and when Chas grabs at John she steps forward to intercede, holding one hand up to try and stop Chas from pummelling John into a fine red mist.

    It's a very long few seconds before he shoves John to the side, and Phoebe lets a breath out.

    "Okay, new at the whole thing here and haven't had disclosure time -- what *did* just happen?" Phoebe asks, offering her hands out to John to take a look at his arms, though her gaze is looking to Chas.

John Constantine has posed:
    "It's his to tell," Chas snarls before he slams the door to the back room shut. Even polishing glasses won't quell that storm for a little while. Man is straight pissed - and not in the British fun way of the word.

    The blisters are all but gone, just a few here and there, but the skin's still angry looking, red, like a sunburn.

    "Sorry about that, luv," John offers quietly. "He has a temper sometimes, usually checks it before he breaks my bloody jaw though." He says that, well, like it's *really* happened a time or two. Who can blame the man really, giving two shits about John Constantine is a lesson in frustration, innit? He's also deflecting, isn't he? Not really speaking on what needs to be spoken?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is quiet a few moments as she very gently -- and minding her power -- turns John's arm over in her hands. Iritated and red, but the power is fluctuating, she's having a hard time concentrating. The dark-eyed teen draws her gaze upwards to John's face, and she takes a breath, and releases his arm, and lets her breath out.

    "If you want me to try and clear it out, I'll need a minute. In the mean time..."

    She sits down on a barstool. "I'm all ears."

John Constantine has posed:
    John pulls away and goes back to his own stool. "It'll right itself on it's own," he murmurs in regards to the healing of it. Sounds more like a man bent on suffering that that though.

    "He's the reason for it, the one that did this. For the burning. He's the one that taints my blood." Every word spoken seems as if it hurts John, the memories of that first encounter with Nergal are nearly enough to drive him to drink the entire bar in one setting. That night did, after all, drive him literally insane; that first night, that first encounter.

    He fills his glass, downs it, fills another, lights a cigarette; and pulls it together so that tears that might have threatened to do so never fall. "He's had a boner for me for... eleven years now. Chas is just twitchy on it, I'll figure it out."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe switches barstools. Usually she gives him one of space. Now she sits right next to him, quiet, listening quietly. She rests her fingertips on the bar a moment.

    "I can understand why he's twitchy about it. He cares pretty deeply for you. Not everyone would rush out to defend a bar from something that can do.... that." she states quietly, the little Glow Worm looking up and back to the door, watching to see if anyone else would come back in.

John Constantine has posed:
    Best mates since acne and awkward," John replies, his attention on his glass, easier to look there than at Phoebe. "If I don't figure it out, he's not takin' it well. He's gonna want to run in, shotgun boomin'. Don't let that happen, aye?"

    He looks up from his glass, all cocky half grin and a little snort of a breath. "We don't even know if the bastard was listenin', right? Why borrow trouble we don't have yet. Got enough of it without don' all that."

    ...but he's scared, terrified even, Nergal is his oldest enemy, only beaten back in danger and a potential eternity of suffering and torture by The First of the Fallen. John hides his fear well, in his expression, but it's hard to hide it in his eyes if a person knows where to look.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe knows where to look. She's seen it hundreds of times in the eyes of firefighters and EMTs, buried beneath the tradition of never saying goodbye, a certain way to hang your helmet, never letting your gloves rest the same way twice.

    "You think there's not a chance I'd be right behind him doing the glowy thing?" she states quietly, raising her eyebrows, then she takes a deep breath, and lets it out.

    "... I've already shed blood at your ask. Don't think I'm not canny enough to NOT follow Chas into Hell for your sake, John. I meant it when I said I was with you. You... run into danger, what's the phrase -- 'cocksure'?"

John Constantine has posed:
    John's cocky grin fades into a stern line. "No, you can't and neither can he, or Meggan. If anything comes of this and I can't around the deal in the end," which is really a big if given his track record, "It's over, end of it. This is on *me*, not you, not Chas, not Meggan. It's on *me*."

    There's that hellfire again, kinda chases the terror out of those tired blues, dunnit? "It's my cross to bear, it's *MY FAULT*." There's a bigness to those last words, something hinting that he's not only referencing the immediate that's right in front of them.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    A bigness that means something so much more than the circle and the two deaths that happened on the front step of the bar.

    "... I can't absolve your guilt." Phoebe states, and she frowns, drawing back a little from John. She shifts in her seat uncomfortably.

    "You asked before if I wanted to die." she states, "... do you?"

John Constantine has posed:
    "No," John replies quickly, with certainty even. "But when it happens, it'll be far overdue and what's rightly comin' to me," he adds before polishing off his drink. He doesn't pour another, not just yet.

    Chas steps out from the back; anger either faded or put on the back burner for the moment. "John, I have a thing tonight, need that iron dagger, the one with all the scroll work, I think it's at the House. Can you fetch it for me?"

    "You can't fetch it your bloody self, Chas? Why'd I have a door put in for you back there?." John grouses. "You know I can't find anything in that place," Chas shoots back. ... and John stands, with a roll of his eyes to the Heavens and a put upon sigh, "It's a wonder you can find your..." But he stops himself and tells Phoebe, "Sorry, luv, back in a blink."

    But he won't be, not for a little while, because once he's gone, Chas is behind the bar and laying an iron, scroll-worked dagger on the bar.

    "Sorry," directed at Phoebe. "That line of conversation takes him down dark roads, something we don't need right now. I'll answer what I can before he gets back, figure he'll look for a good hour before giving up and scrying for the thing."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe raises her eyebrows, sure of the closeness of friends and isn't seriously offended by the implication of Chas being unable to find something he's probably attached to. She scratches her cheek a moment, her own nervous tic as she's left alone with Chas, and she looks up at the best cabbie in the world.

    "... no, you're right, I shouldn't have -- it's not my place." she states, and she breathes out.

    "John tried to divine parts of my past, and I've been swung from opposite ends of the spectrum from 'best keep it business' to 'I kinda feel like he actually likes me.'" Phoebe states, and looks to Chas.

    "Is he *always* like that?!"

John Constantine has posed:
    Chas actually laughs, it's a warm thing, fond, maybe of both the little Glow Worm and John. But once the sound is out, his expression grows more somber. "Yeah, he is. John's a bloke torn between needing people to care about and not wanting them to care enough about him to get themselves hurt. Feeling like he actually likes you, even for a second, means he does, that he cares."

    "Water? Warm?" Not a bad bartender, but a better cabbie truth be told. "He's lost a lot of people in his life and he carries each of those losses around with him on the daily, kid. When they get too heavy to bear, that's when he starts showing his ass, shoving people away. He gets his way most of the time too, in the end they leave."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I'd say 'hot' but every time I ask for it, the tea gets spilled." Phoebe states with a certain dissatisfaction. "Just a sprite maybe?" she asks, turning to Chas as she leans forward on the bartop.

    "But you didn't." Phoebe reflects quietly. "... I stopped by to see my dad before I came here. I like to keep him updated on my doings. Helps to have a confidant that I know isn't going to tell anyone untrustworthy anything. John's lucky to have you," she gives a wry grin, "conversations with my dad are pretty one-sided."

John Constantine has posed:
    "He saved me a long time ago and we've been saving each other since," Chas explains while he's drawing up a sprite from the tap. "From the demons, both real and the ones in our heads. I'm just as lucky in the situation, even if he is an *asshole*." He slides the Sprite over.

    "But this thing with that bastard," he makes a vague gesture toward the outside. "It'll be the end of him if it doesn't fall his way." Just a beat and he adds, "John could make that two-sided, at least once, if there's business you need to handle there."

    He lapses into silence, contemplative that. Finally he sucks in a breath and begins with, "We were young and stupid and messing with stuff we shouldn't have been messing with, *all* of us, but he take it all on himself. He summoned *that*," another gesture to the outside. ...to kill a demon that had been summoned by an abused girl. He failed to bind it, failed to name it, didn't know. It killed the demon and dragged the girl to Hell as payment."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... I don't think that would be a good idea." Phoebe states quietly, and there is a little tic as she scratches her cheek again. She's thinking about it, at least.

    And she listens to Chas quietly. Her dark eyes go wide... *his* fault. *His* cross to bear.

    And she is quiet. She looks down into the bubbles of the sprite, and she leans her head forward, letting the bubbles tickle at her nose. Her shoulders sag, and she looks in contemplation to Chas.

    "He /is/ broken." she whispers.

John Constantine has posed:
    "He is." It's a statement of fact, not anyway at all reflective of how much Chas respects and loves the crazy bastard though. "He actually spent three years in Ravenscar after that and he's been trying to atone for it every day since. We'd have lost him if it wasn't for Paul..."

    It's rare to see Chas drinking 'on the job', but he pours himself a glass from the bottle that John abandoned and polishes off half of it. "Bastard's been obsessed with John since, even transfused him with some of its own blood when John was in hospital. They've been cat and mouse, back and forth since. If it gets its hooks in him..."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Then it's all over for John." Phoebe finishes, "An enternity of damnation and suffering, provided the Underworld is actually fixed." she breathes out, and then puts her head in her hands a moment.

    "... we can't let that happen. I could *feel* the ragged bits of... metaphysical *tar*. Just sticking to everything is what it felt like." she frowns a moment, and looks up to Chas, and then contemplates pushing her glass over too... but it wouldn't have any affect.

    "So... how do we protect John until he figures a way around it?"

John Constantine has posed:
    "Keep it from helping? Fix the mess ourselves? Lock John in a magic proof cage until it's over?" First option might be possible, if they move quick. Second isn't an option at all.

    "Maybe it didn't even hear him, maybe... it won't take him up on the offer?" A man can hope right. "Until we know the truth of that, I'm not sure what we *can* do. Other than try to keep him even keeled enough to deal with it all. I'd like to strangle that soddin' idiot that spoke its name in here though."

    If only she'd mention it, Chas has stuff behind that bar that would probably, do something that is.

    "I won't *tell* you to step back and not get involved, kid. I can't, wouldn't be fair. ...but I will advise you to think long and hard on it before you do."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I would need your help and advice on how to do the first -- short of staking a claim on John's soul which is probably a SUPER AWFUL BAD idea--" Phoebe states, thinking out loud.

    She has no doubt that Chas has stuff that would do the trick. She doesn't ask, being seventeen and all. Let's not add 'abetting a minor to alcohol' to the list of things for today.

    However, Phoebe looks up at Chas, and she gives a small smile.

    "A while back, someone asked me if I would die for my City. I told him I would die every night if it meant protecting the people I cared for. And that's true. He's a bit of an ass," understatement much, Pheebs, "... but he is someone I care for. The Broken. Like me."

John Constantine has posed:
    "That's the grate, kid, that's John's department. I know a little. I can cleanse a house of spirits, I typically know what John needs depending on the situation. I can kill a vampire. But *he's* the magical mind, the brains I guess."

    Chas polishes off his drink and settles the glass down on the bar. "If we're going to fix it first, before *it* can step in to help and seal that deal, then we need him to help us do it. I wish I'd been listening better, to what he said, but I kinda blanked at the first of it, when I realized what he was doing. Sometimes loopholes can be found in words."

    One eyebrow raises independently of the other when his brain back tracks. "Wait, you can't really *do* that?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... do... what?" Phoebe blinks in confusion, needing clarification on which part she can't actually do -- because 'staking a claim on a soul' 'dying for Gotham' and 'Caring about Jon Constantine' are very, very different things

John Constantine has posed:
    Stake another claim on his soul?" Chas doubts that, he really does, but in his line of work? Well, he's seen crazier.

    "He'll throw himself on a sword first, you know, if given the chance, before he'd let you die for him." He actually pours himself another. Not unusual when he's not working, but when he is, he never touches the stuff.

    "He's an asshole, he really is, but there's reasons for it. Underneath it, John Constantine is really the best of us. He gets there wrong sometimes, crooked, sideways, but that's just because he'll do what it takes to get there."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... that... depends on who would come to try to fight me for it, I suppose." Phoebe is actually considering it. Actually considers staking a claim on John's Soul.

    "... we would need a really strong circle, I would think. I can probably charge it using The Light, if I kept it small, but it'd have to be something that's enough to capture attention. There's always the vial of blood method from Romantic magic, but I'm not sure how Meggan would take that on considering it's more of a 'our souls are entertwined' and I can definitely see John nixing that one out of hand..." Phoebe states, and she reaches for her bag and pulls out another notebook.

    "I've already trusted him with blood once, I mean shouldn't be too traumatic an experience except for trying to get enough on my end, but how much is 'enough' and does it count on the difference between 'virgin blood' and 'blood of a virgin' because those are two very different things --" Phoebe considers, and she almost gets a gleeful note to her voice, running through possibilities because of course she was *that* kind of kid in school.

    But she pauses, and she takes a breath, and looks to Chas.

    "I know he would. Which is why you'd have to stop him from doing it." she points out, and then she swishes the sprite, and then she presses her lips together.

    "I know. I also know he's scared of what will happen if he doesn't come out of it on top."

John Constantine has posed:
    "He has every reason to be, man should be terrified and running the other way." But that isn't happening is it? When a clatter and a thud and a *Wretched HOUSE!* happens in the back room, Chass quickly shoves the dagger under the bar, behind a stack of napkins and a few jars of pickles.

     "We didn't have this conversation," Chas tells Phoebe before planting a casual smile on his face and asking, "So, there we were, two of them closing in, lower level shites, easy pickings. ...and John turns to me and asks, "So, did you shag her?" Middle of a bloody fight and he's wanting to know about my sex life - or lack there of at the time."

    "Bloody *hell*, Chass, it's here in the bar somewhere, like to not two feet from where you're standing. You used it last, didn't remember where you put it? And you say I'm losin' my soddin' mind?" That's how John makes his entrance, all piss and vinegar. It's easier to hide the fear behind all that, innit?

    "Answer to the question was 'no', by the way, luv, despite me havin' set him up perfect for the kill."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Like I said -- Broken. We run to the dan--" Phoebe startles as the shout hits her -- that poor house, undeserving of such ire -- and she quickly puts the straw in her mouth and drinks down half the sprite in one go. Of course, Chas had to go to a story midway through and bring up such things.

    The question makes Phoebe cough, and she reaches for a napkin to cover her mouth as the two begin to bicker a bit, adn she breathes out fizzy liquid through her nose.

    "But it doesn't HAVE any bearing on a fight!" she protests, "Unless you're looking to have Chas clock you first!"

John Constantine has posed:
    "Sure it did, luv, got his panties all in a wad enough to put a beatin' on those things while I started the spell to properly send them on their way," John replies as he nudges Chas out of the way and retrieves the dagger. "Really, Chas?"

    "Sorry, mate, must have been slammed when I came in last week with it, went right to work and forgot." He's *almost* as good as selling it as John is, which is why John believes it in his current state.

    "Need to be more careful with this shite, Chas, the spell on it wasn't easy," he grouses before finding his seat at the bar.

    Chas shoots Phoebe a *look*, don't say a word about it and polishes glasses, "Sorry John."

    "Don't you have somewhere else to be, luv?" John snarks in Phoebe's direction. "Sittin' around a bar, no place for a wee lass, aye?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... actually no, since I got expelled for breaking someone's shoulder and destroying someone's sixteenth-birthday-nose and I kinda just slum around Gotham sleeping on friend's couches because I'm bad for my mom's health." she finger-guns John. She's not a horrible liar, but that's far more truth in that statement than there is stretches.

    "Could sneak into the university library again and get some research done." she stretches her arm out over her head.

John Constantine has posed:
    "You can stay with Chas," John mutters, holding on to the *asshole* even when he's obviously being helpful, or trying to be. "He's stayin' in the apartment upstairs.'

    Chas agrees readily enough, "Sure, there's a spare bedroom up there, but it's a little small and the landlord's a real *asshole*."

    "Right then, it's all settled." John rises from his stool again, downs the glass he just poured and says, "Walk About's in order, see what's happenin' other side in those places mentioned, so I'll leave you two to workin' the detail on that."

    What might be a better idea is sleeping, but who's the time for it?

    "Go get your stuff, kid, I'll have a key made first thing in the morning," Chas, still polishing, tells Phoebe. Seems it's settled if she agrees to it.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Things that Phoebe did not expect to happen:
    -Contemplate stealing a soul from demons
    -Deal with a summoned demon that had killed the neighbor
    -Get invited to stay with Chas over the Laughing Magician.

    She just sort of sits there a moment, and blinks, opens her mouth and then looks to Chas, and then shrugs.

    "I've had worse roommates."

    And she cracks a little grin. "Luckily, don't have much in the way of belongings, but if you have a bookshelf I can borrow I'd be very, very happy."