The Outsiders|(Roger/Dido) INACTIVE

[ROGER DAVIS]

"Hi, baby."

The cemetery wasn't anything special, though it was near New York University which had often surprised Roger when he remembered. There were hundreds like it in New York. It was nicer than others; April's parents had made sure to at least get her some place nice, with a nice tombstone. They had known that Roger would have wanted her to stay in New York instead of moving her all the way out to California, so they paid for the plot for her to stay.

"I got a gig the other day, baby. Down at the Pyramid Club. I'm thinkin' of getting the band back together." Roger fiddled with a leaf in his hands as he sat near the tombstone. "Y'would really be proud of me. I finally got some sort of...I don't know, muse back. I've been writing like crazy." His eyes stayed downcasted on the leaf in his hands. "Y'know, I think you woulda liked Mimi, baby. I think Mimi woulda liked you, too. Once she got over the fact that...that you completely and utterly fucked me up." Roger felt a slight laugh escape his lips as he shook his head. "Mark says Hi, too. I mean, he didn't exactly like...tell me to say hi to you, 'cause you're...you're dead. But I know he misses you. Maureen misses you too." A breath escaped his lips. "I just wish you would have just...moved out. Left me one morning. If you would have just left me, I woulda been okay, baby. Because I would have known that...that whatever happened, you were still okay. Still safe. Now I--well, I don't know what's happening to you, do I?"

Roger moved, looking at his watch with a slight sign. "I gotta go, baby. I gotta meet Mark at two." Standing, Roger felt a frown spread onto his lips, and he moved, leaning down to press his lips against the tombstone. "See y'soon, April Showers."

It wasn't too long that he found himself wandering around New York. It wasn't hard to just get lost in the city; even after living in New York as long as he had, he still found himself in slight awe. This was both heaven and hell, the city. It was a wonder and it was a prison at the same time. He'd live and die in New York, he knew. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he walked distractedly, looking towards the sound of sirens in the distance before he felt his body collide with something.

"Aw, shit! Sorry!" he whispered, his hands moving up to steady the body. She was beautiful, and dressed to the nines, which made him automatically tense. He waited for the assult of words that he knew were coming as they always did. Why didn't he watch where he was going? Why didn't he watch where he was going? Why didn't he just go back to Alphabet City where his kind was?

"Sorry!"

[sasha]

"Goodbye, Ms. Purcell. Remember, if you begin to feel as though you're a threat to yourself or others, you must come back here immediately. What did I tell you again?" asked the hospital's shrink, looking at the pale woman before him.

"That jumping off of the George Washington Bridge is not a solution and that suicide is illegal," Elissa replied flatly, not bothering to say another word to the doctor. What kind of fucking law is that? They going to bring my dead body to court and slap a fine on me? she thought, beginning to walk to the elevator.

"Ms. Purcell! Wait!" the shrink shouted, taking a few long strides to reach her. "Here is my phone number and the phone numbers of some of my colleagues. The suicide hotline's number is provided as well, in case all fails." He slipped the piece of paper into the woman's slender hand, patted her on the shoulder once, and walked away.

Thanks. As soon as she exited the building, she threw the paper into the nearest waste receptacle and made her way towards Greenwich Village. There was a chess shop there that she could visit. She and Sychaeus had often played chess, but she hadn't picked up the game since she found him dead on the floor of their estate. She probably would have played with Aeneas, too, if she hadn't been so wrapped up in the hole left by her first husband. No wonder Aeneas left. Hell, he was the whole reason she was here at all. Had he not left her high and dry, she would never have attempted to jump off of the George Washington Bridge. Therefore, she wouldn't have spent two hellish months in a psychiatric ward. The thought of going back there was enough to make sure that she wouldn't endanger herself again...yet.

She was wearing the same grey peacoat that she wore when she almost leapt from the bridge. Underneath was solid black. A strand of pearls was vaguely visible on her graceful neck. She looked like a million bucks, but she felt physically and emotionally bankrupt. How could one man inspire such hysteria?

These thoughts tumbled around in her head until she bumped right into someone. A man. Fuck. He looked harmless enough, but Aeneas did, too. The thought of her ex-husband made her shiver noticeably. Maybe she wasn't ready for the "real world" yet. Nonetheless, the man apologized once more and looked at her as though he were expecting anger or something.

"Hm? Oh...yeah. It's fine. Really." No, not really. "I'm sorry to have bumped into you."

[ROGER DAVIS]

The onslaught didn't come, and Roger looked at the woman almost confused. Well, he had found the one nice person in New York City. Yay. he thought silently, almost ironically, until he narrowed his brows. "...it's cool. I wasn't playing attention." But neither was she, he noticed, and he tilted his head slightly as he watched a small, but yet slightly visible shiver cross her body.

Maybe he hadn't ran into a girl like Benny's wife, the stiff-upper crust girl that looked down at the lower species in Alphabet City. From what little Roger had seen of Muffy, she always looked like she had something permantly shoved up her ass. And from Benny's constant straying in their relationship, it wasn't anything that was attached to Benny. He knew that just because people up here had money, it didn't always mean that they were happy. They could have been just as miserable as the people that were poor and living on the streets. Probably, the only difference was that the rich people had a roof over their head. Heat in their homes. Electricity.

They had money. Money didn't solve problems, but it sure the hell helped. But then again, it also led to ruin. It was that irony that amused Roger. He knew that he'd rather be poor and happy with his friends than rich and friendless. The woman looked pale (though still strikingly beautiful in that way that Roger knew he'd never get) and upset. She didn't look that upset, she hid it well, but Roger just...somehow knew.

"Um...are you okay?"

[sasha]

"Um...are you okay?"

Elissa had planned to just walk away and continue skulking around the Village once the apologies were made. But, he had to ask that damn question. At least it wasn't "How are you feeling today?" She'd heard that enough in the hospital over the past two months. The question this man posed, however, was harmless enough. Wasn't it? At least, it was simple. What would she say to this stranger, though? The truth?

"Well, I've just been released from a mental ward for attempting to jump off the GW two months ago. I'm just fine. Peachy. The world is all rainbows and sunshine now!"

Okay, yeah, the truth—complete with sarcasm. Unable to explain to herself what compelled her to answer truthfully, she just stared at the man with a disconnected gaze. She wasn't all there. No, not at all.

Elissa paused and furrowed her brow. "Why does it matter to you?" she quietly asked him.

[ROGER DAVIS]

Roger blinked, listening as Elissa spoke about being released from a mental ward for trying to off herself. He blinked, and then nodded. "Thought about doing that myself." he told her honestly, though he paused. "Though, the Trade Centre? It's taller. Less of a chance on someone IDing your body when they find you."

He tilted his head slightly as she asked quietly why it mattered to him. He wasn't sure why he felt compelled to ask the woman what had been wrong, and he moved, lifting a shoulder slightly in a half-hearted shrug.

"I've been there before. The bridge thing, not the hospital thing. Though I was in the hospital for like, a month 'cause I overdosed. Maybe that was my own little, you know...bridge."

The statement was honest. What was he supposed to do? Tell her she was horrible for wanting to jump off the bridge? That she deserved to be locked up? If she deserved to be locked up, so he did. They had both fucked up. Roger hadn't even heard the story behind what made her try, but did it matter? It had been serious enough for her to try.

[sasha]

Elissa sighed and leaned against a stoop wall as Roger talked. She wasn't really in the mood to chat, especially about something so personal, but he was nice enough to ask how she was. That in itself counted for something. Of course, he was no substitute for her sister, Anna, but if he listened, she'd talk to him all he wanted. Too few people listened nowadays, especially New Yorkers. Then again, people in Carthage didn't really listen, either. She was the daughter of a Senator, and, for some reason, they thought that she was too high and mighty to talk to. That was never the case. Never.

She raised an eyebrow as Roger mentioned his own demons. So, at least he did know what it was like. The Empire State building...maybe she should have done that. "No, I'd still be ID'd. Have you heard about the woman who jumped in 1947 and landed on a car? They called it the most beautiful suicide in the world," she said dryly. She cleared her throat and shifted her weight onto the wall. "Anyway..."

He continued speaking. Wow, he really has been through a lot. Makes me seem even more pathetic than I already am. Go figure.

"I'm sorry you've had to deal with that. Life sucks, and then we die, yeah?" Elissa looked to the ground. "What's your name, anyway?" she asked, not even back up at him.

[ROGER DAVIS]

"I'm not really a...student of suicides. I've sorta got...a thing. Against it." Roger replied at her question. He had a thing against it, because even now, years after it had happened, he walked a little quicker into the bathroom when Mimi was behind the closed door. Checked on her a little more often when she was in the bath. He never slept unless she was in bed or on the rare occasions that he was too sick to stay awake. Even then, he slept with one eye open; if Mimi wasn't in bed, he was usually awake and wondering where she was, calling out to her in the night...just in case. He tried to tell himself that Mimi was different, that she wouldn't do that...but it still worried him. The smell of blood still turned his stomach with it's harsh copper smell.

Razers were even kept in a secret area in the bathroom, to a point where if Mimi bought one, it was gone by the next morning, leading to the conversation about why they'd always dissapear. And why Roger never talked about it.

It was beautiful, huh? "Yeah, beautiful." Roger mumbled, shaking his head slightly. But then, he thought about it. April hadn't looked scared or frightened under the water when she laid dead in the bathtub...she had looked peaceful. Under the red-tinted water, her eyes were shut, and she had looked peaceful. But it was then, after that two seconds of noticing how she looked, that he really noticed. He noticed that she wasn't breathing. That she wasn't playing a trick.

That it was over.

"It's beautiful until you realise that they'll never smile again. Or never laugh. Or never--brush her hair or anything. It's beautiful until you realise that you're still here."

Silence spread through like a knife, slicing through the air until she spoke again. Roger crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall. "Yeah. That's life and then you die but luckily (or unlucky, havn't quite picked yet) my period of suckage has been...drastically shortened."

She asked what his name was, and he moved, digging into his pockets for his cigarettes and lighter. He lit one, and held out the pack. He wasn't sure if she smoke. She looked rich. Did rich people smoke?

"Roger Davis. What's yours?

[sasha]

Dido continued staring at the ground while Roger spoke, trying her hardest to keep her mind from wandering. Things were rough right now, obviously. There was no denying that she still felt like a piece of gum which had been spit onto the pavement only to get stepped upon by hundreds of people who didn't give a rat's ass about it. Even though someone was reaching out to her, sharing his own misfortunes, the woman believed herself utterly alone in her predicament. Yes, it was irrational, but there was also some sort of comfort which came with the burden. She wouldn't be able to explain it in a million years, but at least she could recognize it.

She looked up as soon as Roger mentioned "her." He hadn't said, "brush their hair or anything;" he had mentioned a specific someone. He knew someone, then, Dido reasoned in her mind. That would certainly change things. She'd never known anyone who had committed suicide, and he obviously had. There was a pang in her chest, a dull, throbbing pang which made her want to run away from this man. How could she talk about suicide him? It was wrong of her. But he had asked! A thin sweat broke across her temple as she mulled all of this over in her head.

And then she saw a pack of cigarettes. Oh, shit. Did he say something else? The blonde felt like a complete idiot, looking into his eyes as though she were some lost puppy or something. The scent of the smoke enveloped her, and she felt tempted to accept one even though she hadn't picked up a cigarette since she was a teenager. "I...I don't smoke," was all she could muster as she made her choice not to accept his offer.

So, his name was Roger. That was simple enough to remember.

"Elissa Purcell. Sometimes Dido. Depends on my mood." A couple of seconds passed before she added, "You knew someone, then...someone who..." She'd let him finish.


((Feel free to let Roger vaguely recognize her name, if you wish. Since she's the daughter of a Senator, I'm pretty sure that the murder of her husband by her brother would have been a scandal or some sort of news story a few years back. If not, that's fine. XD))

[ROGER DAVIS]

Taking in a drag from the cigarette, he let the smoke spread through his lungs, the familer burning sensation traveling through his lungs before exhailed, releasing the smoke. He felt his brows narrow slightly as she asked if he had known someone. His brows stayed narrowed for a moment before he flicked his cigarette, looking back up at Dido from where he had stayed looking at the ground. "My girl." He paused, and then felt his eyes close as he realised it needed some clarification. "My...my ex. We were together..." He felt himself pause, and he scoffed at himself. "We were together for four years." he said the words almost surprised, as if it was the first time he had realised it. "...she slit her wrists in my bathtub two years ago. She was still bleeding when I found her." But as much as he cried, begged and pleaded with April to open her eyes, she would never open them again.

It was then that he narrowed his brows at her once more. "Purcell." Why did that name sound so familer? "...Oh." Roger said after a moment. Collins had been flipping through the paper one morning and had pointed out that a dude had gotten offed by his girl's brother. They shoulda made a movie, he said.

"Well, Di." Roger said, clearing his throat with a slight cough. "Sounds like we're both in a shitty place right now. You drink?"

[sasha]

Elissa's crystal-blue eyes widened as Roger recounted the circumstances of the suicide. Four years together. Four years which had to end so tragically. To top it all off, he'd gone to the hospital for a drug overdose. Life had definitely thrown him a shitty deck. At least they had that in common. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to soak everything in. And she thought she was one of the saddest cases. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely, opening her eyes to look at him.

Now it was her turn to explain. "Yes, that Purcell. In the flesh and blood herself. Daughter of Belus Purcell, Senator of Maine. Also a waste of a life form." She paused. "You know, I'm not sure why I didn't kill myself after I found Sychaeus dead on the floor with a sword through his gut...why I didn't remove the sword and stab myself with it. Instead, I had to wait until my second husband left me a month ago and slapped me with a divorce." With a sigh, she added, "I would have gone to the ends of the Earth for both of them."

"Di." He called her "Di." A tear pricked her eye, but she quickly stifled it. That was Aeneas's pet name for her. She shouldn't have mentioned her nickname at all. She should have left it at Elissa. Elissa fucking Purcell. But, everything was quickly turned around when he brought up drinks.

"You bet I drink."

[ROGER DAVIS]

I'm sorry.

"It's not your fault, is it?" Roger asked honestly, and then shook his head. "Don't be sorry. Everyone's always sorry, because they don't know what to say except 'I'm sorry'." Roger took a drag in, lifting his shoulders slightly in a shrug. "I tried looking back with the 'poor me' attitude...it gets me nowhere except in a pile of my own snot and tears."

However, when she spoke about what had happened to her, Roger's eyebrow arched. "...they didn't exactly say that in the Voice." he commented honestly, and then paused when she spoke of her second husband. "Sounds like a real dick. Pretty woman like you...it's just a waste, for him to just throw it all away like that. May he forever have a case of raging herpes. Or crabs. Whatever." Roger told her honestly with a slight smirk. If wishes were horses they'd be riding out of New York right now, he figured.

When she stated that she, in fact, drank, Roger felt himself nod. "My kinda girl givin' that it's early. My friend always says it's 5 o'clock sometime in Russia and they don't give a fuck anyway, so why should we? And he's a teacher, so you know...always one to drop the knowledge." He was also the one to drunkenly start ranting about philosophy at the top of his lungs whenever he wanted. Roger understood probably a tenth of what Collins had been saying, but always nodded and gave a few, 'fuck yeah's' for good measure.

"Since I dropped all of that depressing shit on you, you can pick where we're going. Someplace cheap." he added a little too quickly at the end, remembering that he had next to nothing in his pockets.

[sasha]

Elissa felt absolutely stupid as she stood against the wall while Roger mentioned the whole 'I'm sorry' shtick. What was she thinking? People had said that to her so many times that she lost count, and she hated nothing more than those two words. She meant it when she acknowledged Roger's loss, but that phrase had been so overused that it seemed completely insincere. "I...I'm sorry—I mean, I didn't mean it that way. No, I didn't mean...I just meant that I find it unfortunate that a nice man like you'd have to go through that," she stammered, sounding even more like a blathering idiot. "A drink would do me good."

The blonde pushed herself off the wall and took a few steps down the street, ignoring his compliment. She may have been pretty on the outside, but the ugliness within just tarnished all semblance of beauty in general. A month in the hospital had not done wonders for her appearance, to say the least. But it didn't really matter anymore, did it? Aeneas was gone, so there was no one to impress.

Setting her mind on the drinks again, she motioned Roger forward. "Do not worry about the tab. I have a fortune which I have no idea how to spend..well, other than on the medical bills and counseling. Never been my thing, you know?" She looked at him and mustered a half-smile. "Ever been to 55 Bar? On Christopher Street? It's on me, and don't you dare say 'no.' Too many people've said that to me lately."

Time to eat, drink, and pretend to be merry.

[ROGER DAVIS]

Watching as she stumbled through her words, Roger felt himself chuckle slightly, almost under his breath. "Baby, it's cool. I get what you were tryin' to say. And thanks. You too." He shoved a hand in his pocket as she took steps down the street and Roger followed in step. He looked at her sideways, taking a drag from his cigarette and letting the smoke exhale from his lungs.

"Oh hey--" Roger started, though she spoke of having money and not knowing how to spend it, so he let himself shrug and dropped the protest. If she was willing to pay, she was willing to pay. Beggers couldn't be choosers.

"The 55? Yeah, I've been there once. My friends and I went down there to listen to one of the girls from our neighbourhood play. Pretty nice digs. You know, for a Jazz Bar." He flicked his cigarette. "My friends and I usually hang at the Life Cafe. Well, when we're allowed."

[sasha]

At least Roger didn't seem to mind that she sounded like a complete idiot. For that, Elissa was grateful. During her stay in the hospital, she'd almost forgotten the spoken English language. It seemed that the only words she said were "yes" and "no." Her days were spent filling up pages and pages of cheap notebooks in her claustrophobic room, leaving only to go to therapy. Today, the day she was discharged, she looked through them and could hardly understand the words which graced the pages. Some pages just had the word "Aeneas" scrawled all over them. Others just had scribbles of God knows what on them.

"Yes. It's a lovely place. I quite like the jazz they play. Not to mention, the drinks completely hit the mark." The blonde continued walking, occasionally glancing at her male companion. He mentioned a place called the "Life Café," a place she had never been to herself. "I've never heard of it. And why wouldn't they let you go there? Isn't there a thing called freedom of expression? Come to think of it, my father always hated that. He'd always bring that stuff up when Congress. You know, not turning someone down from a place because they're not the ideal clientele or something. But I digress; my mouth is running on and on. The bar's not that far, anyway."

She sheepishly looked his way once more and waited for him to speak. This was getting awkward for her.

[ROGER DAVIS]

"Yeah, freedom of expression doesn't exactly apply to people like us." Roger replied honestly. "At least not when rich people are at the Life." he paused, and glanced over at Dido. "Which isn't alot, but the waiter...well, he's a dick. He doesn't like us 'cause sometimes we like, dance on tables and shit like that, but that's only sometimes." Roger replied honestly. "I mean, most of the time, we're good. I mean, yeah, sometimes we don't pay. And yeah, sometimes Maureen shows her boobs or something, but, you know...most of the time, we're okay."

Though, the last time he had been int he Life before he had met Mimi was with April. And they had gotten kicked out of the Cafe for having sex in the bathroom. "I mean, I can't help it if the last time we were in there my ex and I got kicked out 'cause some uptight Mom thought her kid saw like, the end of the world in the bathroom. Little bastard shouldn't have been in the ladies bathroom anyway. At ten at night."

The memory almost made him smile until he felt the smile fade. "But, y'know...I mean, we're just people that like to have a good time. We don't hurt people and we, I mean, don't like...really cause any damage. He's just a dick who doesn't like us." He paused, and then lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "There's alot of people that don't like us for one reason or another. They just don't understand. They don't understand and that makes them....afraid. I guess."