Every year, Veronica Mars had noticed, the group of people changed. Mainly it shrunk, familiar faces disappearing between every birthday the rest of them had. That was all the more reason to be here tonight, wandering around the edges of Jim's party. The few friends she had, she might as well do her best to keep, even if she wasn't always that good at it. Making her way over to the refreshments for another drink, she stepped around someone else with a quick flash of a smile.
"I think clowns respond to M-16s same as anyone else," deadpanned Veronica, nevermind that she wasn't aware of any of those being on the island. "But a little flag reading bang oughta scare the facepaint off 'im."
"Terrifying," Pam agreed, nodding. Vimes didn't strike her as the kind of person who would've found it remotely amusing, but that was no reason not to joke about it. It didn't strike her as particularly likely that a clown would be showing up any time soon, anyway. "Get him with his own tricks, you know?"
"That's usually the most fun," Veronica agreed. As she spoke, she started over toward the refreshments for another drink. Hit 'em where they live. There's something about that which adds another twist of the knife every time. "Unless it scares him to death, and then you have a dead clown and that's... just not funny."
"I don't think a dead anything is funny," Pam pointed out, expression dubious for just a moment. She wouldn't have thought that Veronica would have been suggesting anything else. Despite what she'd said, she let out a laugh anyway, shaking her head. "It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen here."
"I could make a list as long as my arm of stranger things," Veronica agreed. Like getting dumped over a hallucination. That one had been pretty weird. There was no good that could come, though, from thinking about Sam or any of the other strange things that had happened to her. Her memories were too much, too vivid. Even Pam herself had a place on that list before a clown did. She poured herself some iced tea and raised it in a little salute. "Probably longer. And it's only going to get longer still."
"Yeah, that's this place for you," Pam said with a shrug, lifting her own half-full glass a little after Veronica did. Over the course of a year and a month, she had experienced a whole lot of really bizarre things, including being a kid again, and heard about even more. That didn't mean she had a problem with it, at least, not when weighed against the benefits of being here. "It's worth it, though."
"Yeah." Veronica nodded. If she couldn't be flippant, she could be brief. It was true, the island had been better to her than Neptune had ever been. "I guess," she added, "if you like tropical paradises with hot guys where everything's free."
At that, Pam really laughed, full and genuine. No matter how flippantly put, there was an undeniable truth in it, which she suspected was the reason a lot of people could stand this place at all. For her part, she wasn't so concerned about the hot guys, having the only one she needed, but the rest was a pretty sweet deal.
"And where you don't have to work," she added with a wry smile, head tilting a little to the side. That, for her, was one of the best parts -- less because she disliked her job and more because she disliked her co-workers. "There's a lot to like."
"You don't have to work," Veronica corrected, wagging a finger at her. "I mean, really, being a mom, that's the easy stuff. I have to help run this place. It's hellish." Except that she was eating it up every minute. It was rare in her world that the good guys got a real say in how things worked.
"Volunteer work," Pam pointed out, arching an eyebrow. Veronica did have a point, work obviously went into keeping this place running, but it was all things people did because they wanted to. Being a council member, cooking meals, working for the police department, none of that was to be discredited, but none of that was required, either; there was no reason to need to earn an income. "How's that going, by the way?"
"Good," Veronica said, nodding. "We're still all in one piece and I haven't killed anyone yet, so I'd say we're facing a smashing success in local politics." Besides which, without it, she was fairly certain she would have lost her mind from boredom by now.
"Sounds like a good deal," Pam said lightly, cheerful. Politics weren't really her thing, but it seemed like Veronica was well-suited for the job, and that she liked it, too, made it even better. "I'm glad you're enjoying it. And that you haven't killed anyone yet."
Veronica shook her head, batting her lashes. "I'm a lover, not a fighter," she said demurely. In truth, she'd been a little of both for some time now. There weren't many fights from which she would have readily backed away, but even with the skills Arya had taught her, there was no way she could have ever brought herself to really hurt someone.
"That must make you popular with the voters, at least," Pam offered, though she knew there was much more to it than that. She'd voted for her herself, before they'd had a conversation that was anything less than awkward, and not just because she was so close to Jim. "Since anyone you fought would have to vote and all."
"If that deterred people, I'd never get elected," Veronica admitted with a laugh. Honestly, she wasn't always sure herself how she managed it. In her experience, corruption tended to trump honor when it came to politics, and voters weren't usually swayed by genuine love of the community and the purest of intent. Sometimes she couldn't help wondering if Neptune had just been exceptionally terrible. "I might be a little bit argumentative."
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Okay, so she could still be flippant.
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"And where you don't have to work," she added with a wry smile, head tilting a little to the side. That, for her, was one of the best parts -- less because she disliked her job and more because she disliked her co-workers. "There's a lot to like."
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