Vagrants
Ashley (LA just after 4pm)
<<Ashley is currently working in the bar when it happens. She has found this place to be the best source of essence she has had in a long time.>>
It was early, only late afternoon, but already The Pleasure Chest had many patrons. Open 24 hours a day, but busy maybe eight or nine of them, this looked like being a very busy evening.
The Quiet happens, and Ashley looked about, confused. Then it was over. The people about sprung back to life, some dancing with that vacant expression, some staring, some acting cool and collected, many watching from the corners of eyes.
Ashley felt the absence of all essence within. It had been swallowed by the Quiet.
Something of the vivacity and passion was gone from the place, not much, but enough for Ashley to notice. She was not sure what it was that has changed, something tired more present in the eyes of the dancers, something bored added in the expressions of the patrons. But whatever it was, it was certainly there.
When it occurred, Ashley accidentally dropped a glass she was returning to it's place upon a shelf; time seemed to slow down as she watched it descend and then shatter on the floor. Once the pieces had finished bouncing time sped up once more and she noticed the gazes of a few people sitting at the bar turn towards her.
With a fake smile plastered on her beautiful face, she bent down and began to clean up the pieces, her thoughts swirling in maddening circles as to what had drained her Essence.
She knew of no Song that could block the Essence from a Celestial or a Diabolical... and certainly no Song that would affect the mundanes as well. Whatever it was it had to be big....
Ashley deposited the fragments of the glass into the trash and tried to act normal as she bent her mind to this Quiet she felt.
'Think you silly Lilim...think....what is wrong here...'
Without any essence, she couldn't even call upon Lilith to find out the source of this latest trouble. Nothing to do until she was off shift though, as it would look rather bad for her to just up and leave.
She received more than one strange look from the patrons, but did her best to tidy up and keep moving. The energy level in the bar had dropped right down. People were doing what they came here to do, but most of them are just going through the motions.
Ashley took care to watch anybody and everybody in the bar, but no-one stood out. It seemed like a fairly ordinary crowd.
In the bar area five minutes or so later, nothing else bad had happened. One of the waitresses (what was her name? Sara? Sandra?... Sandra, definitely) moves closer to Ashley and whispered.
"Are you OK? You look like you're coming down. You need anything?"
Ashley looked at the woman; her uneasiness at being empty of essence creating monsters of shadow where there probably weren't any. Sandra was a mundane... she couldn't possibly know what was happening around her.
Ashley gave her the same false smile she did the people at the bar; her voice though, was perhaps a bit on the deadpan side.
"Just not feeling too hot...probably catching a cold or something. I�ll take some aspirin later if it gets worse."
Hopefully the little nit would buy it and leave her alone.
Ashley then continued to count down the hours till the end of her shift and she could head out and prowl the city in search of an answer to this... this silence.
Ashley got a dim smile in response to her false one, and then the woman was distracted by one of the customers, and so neatly avoided. And the evening continued. At dusk, a faint ethereal breeze washes over her, and distantly there is a sound of a heavy metal chord riff accompanied by an operatic voice. The contrast is terrible, yet somehow works, and a faint energy enters her once again. Once more the essence of the counter symphony trickles through creation.
It being one of those times she wanted to be elsewhere, it was an awfully long shift, interminably so in fact. In the case of this particular pot boiling, Ashley has more determination than the clock, and eventually 1 am came.
Ashley rapidly got changed from her somewhat uncomfortable 'work' clothes, what there was of them, and prepared to go for a bit of a walk. As she approached the back door, which was a bit of a way from the changing room, she heard a low voice from a dark corner of the corridor. In the shadows she saw a prostrate figure moaning quietly to itself. Looking about, Ashley could see no-one else nearby, except a mewing, scraggly tom cat of many colours and uncertain ancestry, which appeared to be interested in a large pool of ill smelling fluid and worse next to the moaning form. The back door itself was a trifle ajar.
Ashley cursed to herself silently; still feeling a bit bereft of all the essence that she had managed to acquire for these long few years that she had worked here.
Though the body owed her nothing... perhaps it could owe her something...
Making up her mind, Ashley approached it cautiously, in case it was some kind of trick. She was a Diabolical; but without essence enough to work some of her more potent songs, she was just as susceptible as a mundane.
As she approached the body, she could make out details more closely. It was swathed in old garments that have the appearance of not being cleaned for many a long month. The pool of unpleasant matter that the form is half resting in seemed to be made of half digested soup. The cat eyed Ashley suspiciously and mewed a hesitant challenge as she approached the form as if to claim ownership of all this lovely slop.
The figure was unshaven, very dirty and had matted hair. It looked like the kind of person of whom one could never really reclaim any worthwhile favors. The clothes were matted and stained. Under Ashley's careful gaze, it became apparent that there was blood on the front of the clothes.
The form was suddenly wracked by weak coughing, and a faint spray of blood issues from the mouth as it did so.
In the background the low throbbing of base from the club and faint hubbub of people obscured any other noise.
Ashley looked at the pathetic form of the bum with some disgust and used her foot to nudge it away from the door to the club. Not even worth a Seeing... but on a night such as this odd one...she shrugged and figured she might as well see if she still retained the most basic of her skills; the thing that was so much a part of her that sometimes she wondered if she would cease to be without it.
Wrinkling her nose a bit, Ashley then bent down and grabbed the man's face and forced it to face her; wondering if she would have to prying open his eyes. Inhaling deeply, she tried to look into them and search for his Need.
As she inhaled, she breathed the noxious air from the figure's mouth, and almost gagged. Steeling herself, she did indeed have to pry open the eyes. And was struck to the core by the immense, almost unplumable depths of the Need.
This man Needed Raphael.
Ashley sensed acutely that he was harmed of spirit, by celestial means, wounded beyond the capacity of any song to repair. The only being who might know to heal a wounds such as this is the Angel of Healing.
To find such a deep, powerful Need is more than remarkable. It was unprecedented. This figure must somehow be a pawn in some celestial game that others had lost. And it fell by Fate into Ashley�s lap.
This mortal soul would be bound to Ashley�s soul eternally if that Need were filled. But to seek a word bound Angel... and one of the foremost of the Holy...
Someone was approaching from the main part of the club towards the back door. Ashley could hear their step.
Once Ashley had seen his need she hissed in shock. Only the sound she heard shook her out of it long enough to realize that regardless of what she decided to do with him; here was not the place to decide it.
Grimacing slightly at the thought of picking him up, she steeled her will and did it. She only hoped that he didn't decide to throw up on her as she carried him through the back alleys towards her basement apartment a few blocks away.
There she would clean him and herself up and figure out what she would do about this... opportunity. To have a mortal bound to her forever... it was almost enough to give her the shiver of delight that Essence did...
With some difficulty she made it back to her apartment. Her prediction turned out to be unfortunately accurate, and almost makes the entire effort completely unworthwhile. The man had clearly not eaten anything more solid than metholated spirits in the last twelve hours, however, and the mess, while unpleasant, does not reek as much as it could.
Finally home, she dumped the man on the floor and began to consider what she is going to do with him. She locked her door carefully, and went to clean herself up first.
When she came out, the figure had only moved two yards closer to the kitchen. He appeared to have half crawled and half dragged himself over to the garbage bin, where he had repeatedly and unpleasantly been sick. Again it was somewhat fortunate that he has had nothing to eat in the last while, but even so, the mess is quite odorous.
Taking stock of the man, she considered what to do next. He was hard to judge age wise because of the dirt on his skin, in fact even skin colour was difficult. He was not a small man, that much is certain, but beyond that, all bets were off.
Ashley looked at the creature on the floor with a vague look of disgust; although at least he puked in the trashcan instead of on the floor. She shook her head sadly at the thought that this was almost like taking in a stray animal... but a potentially valuable stray...
Ashley then walked over to him and nudged him with her foot.
"Are you done throwing up yet? I don't need to have you puking in my shower."
The man rolled over into a semblance of a sitting position, still holding the garbage with one arm. His eyes were profoundly disfocused, as he stared up at the figure (s?) before him. He seemed to be trying to say something, but each attempt to open his mouth resulted in his forcing back a dry convulsion. Finally he managed to mutter something.
"Thengiouverymush."
Or at least it might have been that. With some further struggling, he failed to manage any further words, and in fact failed to move from his position.
Ashley considered whether to pick him up again and move him, when the Symphony erupts.
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