7384/We're All Mad Here

We're All Mad Here
Date of Scene:	15 August 2021
Location:	The Laughing Magician
Synopsis:	John finds out that Phoebe knows more than he feels comfortable with. Chas refuses to let her take the fall, and Phoebe expresses her interest to stay on with John and Chas after the current myriad issues with Abominations and Gods of Death are resolved. No one gets to brood on a rooftop. It's awkward.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, John Constantine

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Someone, probably Julia Child, had written that food is an expression of love, followed by wine. While both may hold true, there's really only one a seventeen-year-old can get a hold of easily, even in NYC. And the city is famous, in particular, for one food product above all others.

    Which is why Pheebs brings in a flat box, the steam making the top a little soft. She pushes up her sunglasses, braids behind a neutral colored hair-wrap as she makes the six steps down into the bar, taking a look for the two proprieters -- or any business patrons.

John Constantine has posed:
    John's at his typical stool with his typical ashtray, his typical Silk Cut burning in the ashtray, the pack next to it and his bottle of scotch and a glass. The latter, he's sipping from. It's difficult to read the mood in the room, no one seems overly tense.

    Chas isn't at the opposite end of the bar, he's somewhere in the middle, polishing glasses. He's not shooting irritated daggers from his eyes in John's direction, but both men are quiet until Phoebe walks in.

    "Hey, kid," it's Chas that greets first. "...that smells good."

    It takes John a second or two longer, likely because his thoughts are elsewhere as they often tend to be. "Pizza?" He makes a face, not so much because he doesn't like Pizza, but he's already started drinking his breakfast/lunch/dinner and he's pretty sure *someone* is going to try to make him eat it instead.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Hey Chas, morning John, yes pizza." Phoebe states as she sits down, giving John his customary one-stool deferrance, and opens the box up.

    It's a thinner crust NYC pizza, with wide-cut slices, practically oozy cheese, and she's opted for peppers, onions, mushrooms -- and one half with bacon. "I was out and about and getting some laundry done, figured I'd grab a pie and see if anyone wanted a slice down here before I brought it upstairs." she states, offering a couple of paper plates to the grouping.

John Constantine has posed:
    Chas isn't shy at all about snagging a plate and a slice, even two. "Didn't get breakfast this morning, so thanks, kid." He opens the till and retrieves a twenty and a five to toss on the bar in front of Phoebe.

    John, however, isn't as enthusiastic about snatching up oozy cheese goodness. He ignores it. Anyone surprised? But there *is* a bit of good news.

    "I found it, the answer to my Assty issues," he announces out of the blue. "Probably going to have to hire Croft to help fetch it."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe almost protests the money, but she figures it would be kind of useless. So she pockets it. It'll end up in Chas's dresser later. So mysterious.

    "-- you did?" Phoebe asks, her eyes lighting up. "That's great news, John! What is it? Who's Croft?" she asks, and she is genuinely enthusiastic. Even if that white tattoo at her wrist is dimming the shine of her aura, the actual gladness and relief is almost palpable as she takes up a slice for herself, and nudges the pizza just an inch closer to John... but that's all she'll do.

    Even though every other bit of her really, really wants John to consume something other than alcohol.

John Constantine has posed:
    He probably had breakfast, Meggan typically makes sure of it. Most days though, John's a one meal a day kinda bloke. So, the pizza remains ignored. Waste off booze to eat now and let food soak it all up, right?

    Chas puts down his own slice, that was halfway to gone already, in favor of listening. ...there's a distinct 'and you didn't mention it before' in his expression.

    "Tears of Saint Bartholomew, rumored to be in the catacombs beneath the Vatican Necropolis, or the Vatican Scavi... super secret or some such, apparently the entrance to them is hidden inside the the Temple of Emperor Constantine," that's a little too on point, isn't it? "...Lara Croft, she's known for raiding super secret places for their loot and goodies." She's also who he swindled out of the book that got him in the mess in the first place. Karma, innit?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Karma is a bitch. Just sometimes a bit slow.

    "Seriously, it's hidden in a temple named after a namesake?" she questions with a little disbelief. She stretches her fingers a moment, drawing uo her leg to rest her foot on the barstool.

    "When are you looking to go get them? Secret places under the Vatican might be guarded, unless the Chruch forgot about 'em." she states, and there's a slight bitter note to her voice there.

John Constantine has posed:
    "I suppose whenever Lara has the time," John replies before polishing off his glass and refilling it, man has to have lunch right? "If anyone can get through guards and traps, it's her."

    His casual attitude toward it all has Chas letting out a little growl of a sound that he tries, he really does, to swallow before it emerges. Now *his* pizza's forgotten about before he goes back to polishing glasses. Those irritation eye-daggers come out now.

    "...and, well, I've asked Meggan to marry me," John adds to his announcements for the day as if the whole thing is an afterthought, another day ending in Y. Of course it's not, not an afterthought at all, it's all he's thought about since it happened; how much of a mistake it was, how selfish it was to bind her to him further. Too late to turn back now, innit?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Now that was news that took Phoebe apparently by surprise. She blinks a moment, and then takes a bite of her pizza and chews thoughtfully.

    "Well... congratulations?" Phoebe replies, sounding almost unsure, and then she takes a deep breath. "Looking to move to her light house then and take up chain-smoking by the sea?" she asks with a little bit of a smile, a friendly note to her voice, and she looks to Chas, and then backs to John.

    "Because if anyone has a chance on staking a claim on /you/ that might give the other three a shiver, it might be Meggan."

John Constantine has posed:
    Chas fumbles and drops the ball... that is to say the glass in his hand falls to the floor and shatters. "You did what?" he asks, reaching up to shove a finger in his ear as if to clear it, maybe he heard that wrong?

    "Figured you're my best mate, maybe you'd care to be the best man?" John asks, continuing on as if it's any day ending in Y.

    So far, his mood's been pretty damned stable for him, but Phoebe's last, well the dark cloud coming to roost is very nearly a visible thing for as metaphorical as it is. John down another glass, no sipping this time, not even swig, it's just gone. He pours another.

    Was that thunder outside? Nah, but it should have been.

    "John..."

    John downs the glass, pours another.

    "...and what would you know of the other three, luv?" he asks, more than a little snip in his voice. He sure doesn't remember mentioning all it.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    He didn't, because Chas did. Phoebe blinks a moment, retracing her words, and tries to play it casually. She heard the thunder, but it wasn't the normal sound that she felt move under her feet.

    "Not much, other than there's one that left his mark and killed the neighbor, and one that breathed in you and is making your lungs go to jelly. It's come up in conversation, I /do/ have ears." she states, as if it might have been something she overheard. She picks at a mushroom, but lowers her gaze.

    "It's not like someone can mention a name and I don't go to look things up."

John Constantine has posed:
    "That's only two, luv," John points out. Hard to kid the best kidder out there, innit? He lights a Silk, the previous one all burned up in the ashtray. Those faded denim blues turn toward Chas and narrow just a little bit.

    Chas ducks out of sight behind the bar to clean up his mess. "I think it's great, by the way, you and Meggan, she's good for you, John." Someone's trying to change the subject.

    Faded blues narrow more when they return to Phoebe. "So, what's the third, luv?" Put her on the spot, watch her squirm a little.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Hard to kid the best kidder, and though Phoebe's gotten considerably better at covering and lying...

    She plucks off the mushroom, and pops it into her mouth, chewing considerately, and she tilts her head back a moment.

    "Well. Would it be the well-dressed guy who made the joke about the cocaine and stripper poles the other night?" She asks, weakly. "I figured that'd be three, serious stuff going on and who knows if the tattoo would hide everything so close to me, right?" she asks, as if it was something she thought about, but she doesn't look at John. She frowns, a picks a piece of bacon off her pizza slice.

    "And I agree, Meggan's good for you. It's pretty easy to see that you love her a lot."

John Constantine has posed:
    "That was just... a business associate." John replies. It's mostly true, Lucifer is sort of a 'business' associate. He just doesn't say what kid of business. "Pain in the arse, that one, but not a threat." That's not even *entirely* a lie, Lucifer poses no immediate threat to John anyway.

    "Just let it go, John." Chas encourages from still sweeping up glass from behind the bar, that's taking a little too long, innit? "Girl misspoke's all. You're getting married, to a woman that loves you completely, be happy."

    "Yeah, one's not likely to spill my secrets all over the board," John mutters, with a smile that's not meant to be such, it's more a sneer.

    What did you do, Pheeb?!

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    That sneer hurt. That cut all the way down past the wink and the good jobs, and Phoebe felt that little rise of Jealousy curl in her stomach and felt her insides burn with embarrassment. Her cheeks and ears darken -- she doesn't turn red when she's angry, far too much melanin in her skin for that.

    "I never had, and you haven't kept that from Chas." she points out, though her voice is low and trembling.

John Constantine has posed:
    "What else did Chas tell you," John prompts, just coming right out with it. There's really only *one* suspect as to who might have spilled his beans all over the place; and he's pretty certain someone did. Beans all over?

    "He tell you about Newcastle? Astra maybe? Oh, how about how I killed my mum when I was born? Or maybe about how I killed *his* vile mum back in the day? Maybe about how I used to have boxers with wee little hearts all over'm?"

    "Enough, John, it's me you're mad at not the kid," Chas states as he finally straightens up to empty the little dustpan into the trash. "Kid has a right to know things when she's mixed up in them."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe forces herself to take a breath. Of course she was told. Not about his mom passing, or Chas's mom's death... but Chas was John's one confidant.

    She straightens up, and cracks a smile. It's forced.

    "No, he's right. It's me he should be mad at. After all," she spreads her arm a moment, that white tattoo showing at her wrist, "... he knows that aura of good feeling can make people like me. Be sympathetic to me. Even love me as one of their own. What use is it if I can't get a little information out of people, making them too comfortable with me." she states. "The right sad face and scotch and listening to a couple bruised ego moments."

    She keeps her eyes on John. "After all, who'd ever be affectionate to someone like me? I was a danger to everyone around me."

John Constantine has posed:
    "S'that right, luv?" John queries. He raises a questioning eyebrow in Chas' direction. "That the way it went down then, Chas, *mate*?" He still sounds so angry, but it's hurt boiling beneath the surface of it all, causing it to bubble up in the easiest response. Snark and nasty, it's his go to.

    "No, it's not..." Chas replies quickly, certainly. Seems he's not willing to let Phoebe through herself under the bus so easily. "It was right after *he* dropped his calling card on the neighborhood. You were heading down a bad conversation path with her, I asked you to go fetch something I already had. I *volunteered* the information I thought she needed and I'd do it again, *mate*. Because for some reason, she's determined to save your sorry arse from yourself just like I am and there won't be any getting her to turn back, walk away, so she needs to *know* what she needs to know. So rail at me all you want, but do *not* take it out on her."

    John pushes himself up from his stool, looks Phoebe right in the eye and states, "Do *not* lie to me again, luv." Before he heads off toward the bathroom. "I'm going to the loo now, might even siddown a spell, take a shit... you know, in case anyone *needs* to know that, *Chas*."

    "I'll be sure to call the papers, *John*!". Chas retorts.


Poor Phoebe, girl has no idea... John'll get over it, he always does, just like Chas always does. Takes more than than all this to tear the two of them apart.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    John exits towards his other namesake. Phoebe drops her gaze away from his, shame welling up in her throat. ugly and hot as tears stung at her eyes as she turns to watch John's back and then states to Chas:

    "... you should have let me take the fall."

    She turns to Chas, her hands balling up. "After he gets the tears, he's not going to need me any more. The demon's breath will be cleared from him and he'll be able to wrok without his lungs turning to *soup* every week and dumping two gallons of oil slick with chunks of his damn /body/ in it. He's not going to need me in a couple of days -- but he's always going to need you. Like he needs Meggan. Your affection, your friendship, that's real, and lasting and forged in fire and strengthened for it."

John Constantine has posed:
    "He'll get over it," Chas replies after he settles back in at his pizza, likely cold by now but who doesn't like cold pizza?

     "The thing he has with you, it's new, needs time to grow into what it can be, should be... one more person in his corner, one more to trust outside of two, maybe three if you count Strange. Thing he has with me? It'll survive this, it's survived worse, he'll see the truth of it after the booze wears off some and he gets his head on straight." At least part of that was delivered with a mouth filled with food.

    "Look kid, if that's the *only* reason he was letting you stick around without more of a fuss, he'd just go to that Morrigan woman, she's done the same in this. He wouldn't be trying so hard to figure it out instead of just smashing what's responsible. The deal with you that is. If you were just a healer or just another *job*, he'd smash it and be done with it instead of trying to find answers he believes you need about *who* and *what* you are."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe frowns, and rubs her arms a moment, and then lets her leg dowm from her seat, and picks at her pizza.

    "Would it really help me if I knew? I've gone so long without it. When you're little, every kid in the system dreams that their real parents will come back it felt like. Like one day the door will open and all the answers you ever wanted about where you came from will be there. And when they don't, you deal with a lot of 'why didn't they want me', 'aren't I good enough'? And some kids go out thinking no one wants them, and that they're a burden. I was lucky. I always thought the Beacons wanted me... until I met my mom's dad. I learned a /lot/ of colorful names for my skin color that weekend." she frowns.

    "... but what I said is true. People can't be properly affectionate to me, because my aura makes people like me. people coming into range of my aura are seeded with serotonin and dopamine increases, the 'lOve Drugs'. Their sores and aches ease, their blood pressure dips gently. It's like... being in love." she states, and she looks up to Chas.

    "... so no one is ever going to actually love me. Not my friends. Not my family..."
    She picks off a piece of bacon and throws it into the box.

    "... maybe not even the Beacons."

John Constantine has posed:
    "Well, John's got that aura all shut down, doesn't he? Or dampened at least. You're still here because we want you here," Chas takes a bite of that pizza before, "...and not just because you bring us food, around another mouthful.

    "He *never* would have offered you a roof. You do know that he's not... well, your kinda stuff, it's not the same on him as it is everyone else. Between... the demon stuff he has going on and the tattoos. He's pretty much immune to being 'influenced'."

    He pulls back and draws up a sprite from the tap and slides it over the bar, "Live a little, tea all the time's boring and it doesn't go with pizza."

    John's lingering absence means one of two things, he's no longer *in* the bathroom, or that's one hell of a shit.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Some people just have a lot of shit to work out.

    "... if I wanted to live a little, it wouldn't be lemon-lime fizzy soda." Phoebe points out, but she gives a small, wane smile to Chas. "And I know my aura wouldn't work with him. I was counting on him being mad enough to not realize that it probably wouldn't have worked on you to such a degree. Or that it works to such a degree as 'tell me all these deep dark secrets' instead of 'hang out and eat cookies with me in study hall'."

    "... then I owe him.. and you... apologies. I honestly did think it was more because I was useful, because... that's how it's always been. God, even when I escaped the silo, men were offering to buy me so they could use me. Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mess of a girl they pulled from a fake spacerock.

    "... I'm related to the one sending the creatures. I know she's my cousin, on my biological mother's side. She is responsible for kidnapping me from Gotham and moving me to Montana, where they kept me just alive enough, floating in salt water with a nasal tube and IV's to keep me alive, so they could heal millionaires of their injuries and illnesses. One of my friends confirmed that it was her." she states.

    "She kept me in the dark to try and dim my light." Phoebe looks to her left wrist, "I trusted John enough to do it to hide from her."

John Constantine has posed:
    "Trustin' John? It's not always the best move," Chas begins carefully. He'll circle back to the rest of it. But this is important *need to know*. "...and it's not because he's untrustworthy, it's not. I'd trust that man with my life any day. But John's lineage, well, he comes from a long line of 'magicians'. All of them have one key element to their magic and it's not something they can control. There's a *reason* outside his maps and alarms and gizmos that he always ends up being where he's needed to be. He doesn't control it and he can't control who gets caught up in it, who gets caught in the crossfire, pulled under because of it. Fate puts him where he's supposed to be, gives him an 'edge' so to speak, but it also charges him a price."

    He takes a bit, polishing off his second piece actually, man can put away the food, probably why he outweighs his best mate by about a seventy-five pounds - not an ounce of fat though. "He'll get'm, you know that right? The ones responsible for all of it, they'll pay. It's just my job to try and make sure the price he pays to make them pay isn't so high that it's the end of him."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... which is why he's always right where he needs to be at the time. Fate's funny like that, isn't it? Smiles on you, and then bites you in the ass." Phoebe asks, and reaches for a second slice.

    "I know. When he was yelling to her in warning, I knew he would burn himself out if he had to... and he shouldn't have to. I didn't mention it before because I didn't want to send him after the wrong person, but it was confirmed. She's... distinct. Not in a way that I can sense." because Laura's got the nose for that sort of thing. She pauses to drink the sprite down.

    "I was... hoping to stay on, after the business with the atrocities and the Death Gods was finished. I'd like to learn more. It feels more 'right'. Ins pite of how freaking /crazy/ John is at times to be around." She nods her head a moment in admission "... I was genuinely scared he would send me off if he had no more use for an in-house healer."

John Constantine has posed:
    "Like this Croft business," Chas starts before he refills the sprite. "...John swindled her out of a book, a powerful one. Now, it probably didn't belong in her hands anyway and it was probably fate that brought him to possess it. For whatever reason, he's going to need it, but he used it for the wrong reason, Fate's paying him back. Synchronicity is what his family named it, riding the Wave."

    Chas wipes his hands on a napkin and goes about cleaning up the mess from the pizza as he continues. "There's more to it than that, kid, way more. But even if it *was* just need of an in-house healer? Have you *met* John? Seriously? There's been days when he's come home beat to hell and back more than once, three times even, once four. But that's not all it is, if it was, he'd have pushed you away already and just went hunting you when he had need for you."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "It's not every day his lungs turn to soup thank to the halitosis of one of the disordered, is it?" Phoebe states, and she leans forward. "And nothing is ever so simple. I'm not just an orphan from Gotham. John's not just 'some mage'.

    She blinks a moment "Synchronicity... so something with two seemingly unrelated events being involved with one another, affecting one or another forwards in time." she purses her lips in a moment. "... would explain why he doesn't beleive in coincidence." she mutters, and then frowns, and looks down and to her side.

    "... so this is the moment where I get to exclaim 'he likes me, he really likes me'. /Or/." he states, and then points at Chas. "He thought you needed a distraction from minding his business. Which is silly, You're a cabbie, you can mind all sorts of things at once." she jokes, and then breathes out n a soft breath.

    "... and yeah, he's weirdly tough. Must have been hell on wheels as a teen."

John Constantine has posed:
    "Not as tough as he is now." No demon blood back then. "...but you couldn't have told him that. He's always been balls to it, all in..." Until Astra. Anyway, kid, he could pop back from where ever he popped too any second." Chas is pretty sure John isn't *still* in the bathroom. "Don't wanna get busted again twice in the same day and I've some orders to put in or we'll be out of those gross cherries and a few other things by middle of the week."

    He reaches across the bar to put a hand on Phoebe's arm. "Just listen to what he says, what he tells you, through the nasty and the snark and the rude... he means well and he's *smart*. If you listen, you'll learn and be less likely to the price he pays Synchronicity."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe honestly wouldn't be surprised if he opened a portal and fucked off to Gotham to be moody on a rooftop and have a smoke. There was nothing Phoebe would have liked more than to find a rooftop and brood.

    Gotham kids, so dramatic.

    "Hey, there is *nothing* wrong with the marichino cherries!" says the girl who got caught drinking the syrup out of the jar. After eating the rest of the cherries. It was a night after she healed John, she was hungry and her mouth wouldn't stop tasting like an ashtray.

    "... and I know, Chas. I've figured out that there is more risks with this life. Anyone else would have run in the other direction, but us?"

    She raises her refilled glass. "As a friend of mine might say, 'we're all mad here'."