InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "tubular!"

i_liketartan (i_liketartan) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2011-02-17 08:14:00

Entry tags:

anthony crowley, aziraphale

Buggre Alle This For A Lark (Crowley)
Aziraphale was getting frustrated as the computer beeped at him again.

He was attempting to set up his own website for rare book collectors. He had named it "Bibliophile Heaven." He found this amusing and clever in its inclusion of the twist of words. It hadn't really occurred to him that no one else would get it, or that it really wasn't all that clever to begin with. Aziraphale had his own sense of humor.

It was the coding that was giving him trouble.

It really shouldn't have been. Anyone who could decipher The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch in two days should have no problems whatsoever with coding a website, especially one that nearly did everything for you. It looked right, the links all behaved properly, but each time he tried something, the computer would let out an annoying tone of discontent.

He sat at his desk in the back room of his bookstore, a cup of hot chocolate beside him. It was so forgotten it could no longer be called hot chocolate, or even cooled chocolate, and the top had developed a peculiar film.

It was a newer computer, at least in comparison to his last electronic choice. He'd gotten that one for one specific purpose- to compute. It was what computers did. They computed. So accurately, his records had been examined by the tax authorities five times, as they were convinced he had to be getting away with something. Murder, most likely. This one had all kinds of bells and whistles, most of which he'd never bothered with, and now he actually had access to the internet.

It opened so many doors for an angel in search of books in a modern world. Live streaming of classical music was also a new concept to Aziraphale, as was Ebay. That one he'd heard of in a post on another book collector's site. He'd ordered one book through Ebay, only to discover that it wasn't at all what he had been expecting. After a couple of polite emails to the seller, the offender simply disappeared, and not only from Ebay. Aziraphale had paid him a personal visit.

Just when he was sure he had it, he heard the beep again.

"Bugger all this for a lark," he grumbled.

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i_sauntereddown
2011-02-17 06:41 pm UTC (link)

Crowley was staring at his phone in disbelief. He had been looking to see if that girl, Elle, was in his phone. It was time she got up to no good again. But as he opened the contacts option, he noticed a name that hadn't been in there before. He certainly hadn't programmed it into his phone. That person wasn't here. Or at least as far as Crowley knew, he wasn't there. When Crowley checked the number, it wasn't the number he knew that person had had. So he certainly hadn't put it in there. And he hadn't been intoxicated recently, so he couldn't blame it on that.

He was willing to lay odds, however, that the City had tampered with his phone. It seemed like something it would do. So, out of morbid curiosity alone, he hit send. Then it rang... and rang.... and rang...

and rang...

and rang...

No voicemail. No way to know for sure if it was who his phone was saying it was. Convinced it was the City simply messing with him, Crowley got into his Bentley and drove into the downtown area. He let the car steer itself, and continued to fiddle with his phone, again looking for Elle, but stopping again on that name. The demon stared at the phone, dialed it again. Again it rang, and rang, and rang...

and rang...

Still no voicemail. When he hit end and looked back up to see where he was so far, he frowned as he passed an unfamiliar yet familiar book shop.

Wait.

Book shop?

Forcing the Bentley into reverse, and conjuring himself a parking space directly in front of the shop by getting rid of the car that had been there. Then he sat and stared. And stared. And stared. Curiosity finally got the better of him again and he found himself standing outside the door of the Book shop, looking in.

Was it? Was it really? Crowley threw the door open, his voice alerting his arrival if the little bells on the door hadn't. “Bloody Hell! You're here? I mean, you're here!” Then Crowley took note of the phone sitting on counter untouched. “Why didn't you answer your bleedin' mobile?”

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i_liketartan
2011-02-18 07:55 pm UTC (link)

Startled by Crowley's abrupt entrance, he jumped in his chair. "I thought I locked that door," he muttered. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, dear chap, you just surprised me.

He was confused by Crowley's manner. "Where else would I be? We didn't have an appointment in the park, did we?" He was quite sure he would have remembered if he was supposed to be meeting the old demon. No new orders had come to him from the Authorities, and he certainly hoped Crowley didn't come with more bad news.

The birth of the Antichrist was about as bad as it could get. He couldn't possibly imagine anything that would require the two of them to combine their unique talents the way that had. Yet Crowley seemed particularly excited.

"Mobile?" He looked in the direction Crowley was focusing on in surprise. He knew for a fact he hadn't bought that. He got up and walked over, pushing a button to view for himself that he had missed calls. He played for a minute, finding the ring tone, his shoulders slumping as he heard a familiar beep.

"Oh no. That's what that was. I thought it was this bloody thing." He indicated the computer. All that work, only to discover it had been a phone making the noise. No wonder he couldn't figure out what was wrong.

He grabbed his cup of nearly congealed cocoa, taking it to dump in the sink of his kitchenette. "Wine?"

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i_sauntereddown
2011-02-19 07:45 pm UTC (link)

Crowley was speechless. An unusal state of being for the demon, but he didn't know how else to be. Aziraphale was in the City. And either the Angel had been in the City for quite some time and never bothered trying to contact Crowley -which momentarilly made the Demon's rage start to rise, or he had no idea he had been dumped where he was. Book Shop and all.

“I've been down this City's streets at least a thousand times,” he said finally, “and your shop has not appeared on a single one of those streets any time I've gone by.” Now, granted, the City could have been playing games with the old Demon. Forcing him to interact with others. Since the buildings constantly moved about, very few remaining in a single location for long, it was possible that the Book Shop had simply always been and Crowley had always been on the wrong side of the downtown area at any given time.

That was most frustrating. Which also caused his ire to raise a bit. “Are you telling me you've been here all along, Angel?” His frustration was obvious. As was his exasperation.

He didn't even answer the question about the wine. Crowley was still too shocked to find that Aziraphale was now where he was – in the same city again. The City. Besides he didn't know what irritated him more, the fact that it was possible the Angel didn't realize he wasn't in London anymore or the possiblity that he had been in the City for a long time and never contacted Crowley.

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i_liketartan
2011-02-22 07:27 pm UTC (link)

Aziraphale motioned for Crowley to take a chair, grabbing a bottle of wine, smiling and nodding as he opened the bottle. He was doing this to humor the Demon, as obviously the poor boy was upset about something. And a touch off. He then took out two glasses and, placing them on the table poured a generous amount in each.

"I'm a little concerned about you. You have the look about you as if the Devil were on your tail." Aziraphel paused, contemplating. "He's not, is he?"

Nothing Crowley had said was making any sense. He'd been in his book store before, on more than one occasion. "Now, you tell me how it is that you have traveled the streets of Soho 'at least a thousand times' and never seen this shop before. Have you forgotten how many times you've been here?"

"And no," he added, taking a seat himself and a sip of his wine, "I've not been here 'all along'. I do get out occasionally, you know. Why just last week I went out for dinner."

The wine was good. Properly aged, with a nice body. "Do have a drink, my dear. You do look like you need it."

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i_sauntereddown
2011-02-24 01:03 am UTC (link)

This was no good. The Angel had no clue he wasn't in Soho any longer. Or England for that matter. Under his breath, Crowley growled. It was frustrating, how was he even going to begin to explain what was going on or where they both were. There was no logical explanation for it other than maybe the ineffable plan. But even that didn't make any sense.

So the Demon didn't touch the offered glass of wine, reached for Aziraphale, grabbed him roughly by the forearm and dragged him to the front door. Upon opening the door, he shoved the Angel out. “Does that look like Soho to you?” He growled.

Then he released Aziraphale's arm. It wasn't his intention at all to cause the Angel harm, but he needed to get his point across.

“Toto, you are not in Kansas anymore.”

Crowley turned away and went back to where the glasses of wine were sitting. Taking up the glass that had been offered to him initially, he took a sip. It was, in fact, good wine. And a good wine went a long way for calming the nerves.

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i_liketartan
2011-02-27 12:02 am UTC (link)

"Er..."

Aziraphale didn't really know what else to say. Crowley's rough handling of the angel was apparently justified, no matter how shocking. The view was nothing short of astonishing. Crowley was right.

They weren't in Kansas anymore. And there was not only no Toto, he doubted even Dorothy could fathom this. And she'd encountered a talking scarecrow.

"All right then.."

Aziraphale walked straight passed the Demon and grabbed three more bottles of wine, then took a seat across from Crowley. He downed his previously poured glass in one gulp, then promptly refilled it.

"Very well. I suppose you can explain this."

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i_sauntereddown
2011-03-08 12:40 am UTC (link)

Crowley took a seat in the chair before him, relaxed back against it and gave a very uncharacteristic sigh. Then he followed that sigh with another drink from the glass of wine. “Actually,” he said, “I can't.”

Which really, he couldn't. There wasn't any viable explanation to offer the angel other than the fact that they'd simply been plucked from where they had been and stuck here. Crowley, thankfully, with his car and flat, and Aziraphale with his book shop. Also, it appeared that the City wanted each to know the other was there or it wouldn't have enabled Crowley to find him. It did things like that.

“And of what I do know, you'll never believe me.”Another drink. Crowley was of the mind that getting drunk wasn't a bad idea. An idea Aziraphale seemed to support since he'd grabbed more wine before they'd even finished one bottle.

There was a long pause where it was obvious the demon wanted to say something, but couldn't quite find the words to say it, when he finally just shrugged as if to say 'what the hell' and said what was on his mind. “The City is alive.”

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i_liketartan
2011-03-17 01:13 pm UTC (link)

The old demon was right about one thing: Aziraphale was most definitely not going to believe him. At least not yet, and not without a little more detail.

"Well, of course it is." Despite the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, the angel's mind refused to grasp the statement as anything more than a metaphor. "All cities are alive; they have a pulse of their own, the beat of the streets, the energy of all the people that dwell within its borders..."

He was trying. But the more he talked, the more he knew that wasn't what Crowley was talking about. How had his entire shop moved without his knowledge, with him inside it? He drained his wine, not even noting the quality anymore, and refilled it quickly.

"Perhaps Himself put me here. But...why would He put you here, too? You work for the Other Side." Another drink. The wine wouldn't last long at this rate. Good thing he had ample supply. "Unless... you were here before me, obviously. So, your people moved you first, and I'm some sort of "check" to your threat here."

It made sense. A balance was required. "So what is it about this City that both of us need influence here?"

And why did the book shop come with him? It really didn't add up, and Aziraphale knew it.

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i_sauntereddown
2011-03-18 01:31 am UTC (link)

Leave to Aziraphale to not only queer up what Crowley had been trying to say, but to try to make it logical at the same time. The demon sighed. It wasn't like that at all. Sure it was alive in that sense, but it was also alive in the sense that it was alive. Living... possibly breathing and had a consciousness of some kind. It was hard to explain. Harder still to believe, but there it was.

“It's got nothing to do with Upstairs or Downstairs. There are other demons here. Tricksters. Humans with super-human powers. Humans and other things too. Since I've been here I've seen Godzilla, I've tried to usurp a temporary queen with this girl who has power over electricity. I've been institutionalized against my will and been chased by Zombies. It's alive, I'm telling you, Aziraphale.”

It was a mouthful, and more that Crowley generally said at one crack. He took a drink of the win. “City does what it bloody well wants and so should we.”

He truly was glad the angel was in the city with him now, though. Even if the frown on his face didn't show it. “I vote we get pissed.” A statement that was followed up with another swig of wine, draining the glass. Not everything was solved by getting drunk, but that suited Crowley just fine. Especially since they could sober up whenever they wanted. Easy as pie.

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i_liketartan
2011-03-24 12:06 pm UTC (link)

"But that's..." Not possible, he'd been about to say. But he knew that between their combined influences, and the things He chose, anything and everything was possible. He'd given the gift of free will, and that led to astonishing results, both good and bad. He and Crowley barely needed to work at it any more; free will had a way of taking care of it for them.

"Pissed? It seems to me anger will do nothing...oh, you mean the wine." Aziraphale was not quite as up to date on modern terminology as Crowley was, and this latest development was preventing him from thinking clearly.

Alive, the demon said. His thoughts kept returning to that one concept. Alive.

"Look.." He decided to agree with Crowley's suggestion. There was time for sobriety later. Sometimes they thought better when the mind was a little looser. He drained another glass, promptly refilling his and Crowley's glasses.

"It has to be part of His plan, right? A city can't just become 'alive'. Someone had to give it that consciousnesss..." The wine was already taking hold. That last word slurred out long enough he almost sounded like it was he, and not the Demon, that had the serpent tongue.

"Have you talked to any of your people? Maybe I should make contact?" That sinking feeling was growing, and he thought he already knew what Crowley would say. Besides which, he really had no desire to speak to the Metatron right now. Last time that hadn't gone particularly well. It was still a confusing concept to him that he and Crowley had been right, and the Voice of God had not.

"Godzilla? Gods illa..God's zilla...See, it makes sensss- You must have it all wrong. It must be ineffable." Aziraphale took great stock in ineffability.

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i_sauntereddown
2011-03-29 12:11 am UTC (link)

“Don't be so bloody logical, there's no logic to this.” He said with a light snarl and drank from his refilled glass. Aziraphale was trying to reason he way out of it. Make it out to be something out of Above's ineffable will. If it was, then why in the world was Crowley part of it? Unless that was part of the ineffable plan as well. Rather like the reasoning behind the pausing of the Apocalypse.

But if that was part of the plan then everything was part of the plan and really at what point was... Oh, bloody hell. Now Aziraphale had him doing the logic thing. Crowley sighed and downed the rest of his glass. Then he set it down and slid it closer to the angel in indication to kindly refill it.

“There's no talking to my people. There's no talking to your people. You can try, if you want, but I'm fairly certain there's no contacting them.” Crowley tapped his fingernails on the table in thought. “Hell, I've been here over a year and this is the first time I've run into anyone from our world.” There was some small comfort in that, though. That meant no annoying interference with his stereo or his television or anything. It meant no grudge bearing Dukes of Hell on his back.

It was overall, not so bad.

“It's not so bad, once you get used to it.” Rather like being damned, in a sense. “I've still got the Bentley. I've still got my flat.” And now Aziraphale was there. Not that he'd say that aloud.

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i_liketartan
2011-04-03 06:21 pm UTC (link)

Aziraphale needed no further hint regarding the demon's empty glass, and topped his own off as well. He tried to imagine there was no plan to this, and kept coming up short. Crowley had once convinced him of the need to stop the Apocalypse, which really had taken a bit of convincing, in Aziraphale's defense, but in the end it turned out to be right anyway. Rather than convince him that not everything, not even The Great Plan, was part of the Ineffable Plan, it had done the opposite, further cementing his belief in ineffability.

"No contact? None at all? Well, that's really not surprising, Demon. Neither of us has heard much of anything from them since we proved them all wrong last time. I think they are rather embarrassed about the whole thing." He made a silent note to himself to try it later, regardless of what Crowley said. He was a demon, after all, and despite their long-standing Arrangement, and the near friendship they shared, he really couldn't be trusted. Now he was trying to convince him this place was not a bad place to be.

"Do they have sushi?" Maybe a new place could be tolerated, so long as it had sushi. And crossword puzzles. Aziraphale wavered only a moment, before catching himself. "So, what's it like? The same as any other city in any other country?" His alcohol affected brain finally caught up to something Crowley said, "Wait...what do you mean 'our world'. This is still the same planet, right?"

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i_sauntereddown
2011-04-05 10:56 pm UTC (link)

Crowley was about to answer as to the availability if sushi in the City when he was interrupted by Aziraphale asking another question. This time about the City. Followed by another question about the City and another. As if Crowley had all the answers. Though, he supposed, to one who hadn't been there long, he did.

He chose to ignore the first few questions and focus on the last one about the planet. “Not sure, exactly. This is no place I've ever been to or heard of, but most of the people here are humanoid, so I would assume it's part of the same planet.” The demon sighed and took another drink.

The demon thought for a moment on all the things he had seen since coming to the City and gave some consideration to the fact that they might not be on the same planet at all. “You know how I said there are other demons here?” Which wouldn't be a stretch. “Demons I don't know.” Also not a stretch. There were probably plenty of demons he didn't know. “I met one that was born.” Which didn't seem to happen in their world. It was impossible. Demons were ill equipped for procreation in his world.

“But the worlds appear to be similar. Parallel universes, perhaps.” Another drink. “And another thing. This demon hunter by the name of Winchester. He pointed a gun at me after he got my name.” Not too far fetched. “Then he said some nonsense about me supposing to be dead, him having killed me, and how I 'got a new meatsuit.' Or something similar to that.” Crowley blinked a few times, still trying to make sense of it all. “I think there's another demon in another world that goes by my name.” He snorted, as if not only was it ridiculous, but that someone would have the audacity to do it.

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i_liketartan
2011-04-17 06:40 pm UTC (link)

Aziraphale was quite sure the last thing ANY dimension, or combination thereof, was more than one Crowley. He might not be all that bad, as demons went, but still...

"Do you think it's just another one with your name, or could it be another you? You know, like in some of those science fiction movies or those daytime shows the Colonists (they would always be colonists to the angel's way of thinking) like to watch with good and evil twins. Not that one would be Good, naturally, but you get the point." It was an odd thought, and it conveniently led to another. One that required him to finish off yet another glass and refill it. He pointed an accusing finger at Crowley. It wasn't that any of this was his fault, but it was the demon who now had his mind spinning in circles.

"What if there's more than one of ME?" His fuzzy brain tried to imagine running into himself. "I'm sure he'd be stylish...then again, if he comes from an alternate universe..." The whole thing was all too confusing.

"Look, the whole idea of demons breeding and alternate dimensions is just too much. It suggests that even Himself is not the ultimate power...and we both know that can't be." Whatever else Crowley might know of this place, he would never convince the angel otherwise.

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