lunchbreaks | inbox | in the night

[ A response reads,

Rosinante,
The library sounds excellent. How is Thursday afternoon at three?
Sincerely,
Aziraphale

[A note in Aziraphale's box afterward reads:

Aziraphale,
Three PM Thursday, then. I will see you there.

-Rosinante

And indeed, just before the appointed date and time, Rosinante makes his way over. The only regret about the library is that having a pot of tea between them isn't something he can easily do, but he wasn't about to invite himself over to Aziraphale's house, and his own room isn't well-suited for guests with its lack of sitting area. The only real downside to where he and Mary reside, since it has so many other advantages, being centrally-located and all.

If Aziraphale isn't already there, he'll find a chair at a table and poke around in the books for a bit.]

[ Aziraphale is in fact there, with a thermos of tea, overlooking some notes. He looks up then when he hears someone approach. ]

Rosinante! Right on time. Hello, glad to see you could make it.

Would you like some tea?

[ He could pour some into the lid ]

[Huh. It's as if Aziraphale read his mind. He'd be suspicious, except that being a charming, pleasant host seems like a very angelic thing. Tea? Naturally. Maybe he could snap his fingers and create it out of thin air if he really wanted to.

He finds himself a seat across the table, knocks his lantern into the table's leg hard as he tries to find a spot to set it down, and the clang of metal on wood is as jarring as the moment of panic he feels. But he lifts it to inspect it, and all is well, so he more carefully sets it down next to him.]

Thank you. And yes, I'd love some.

[ He does have that thermos with him all the time.

He pours Rosi a cap of the tea. ]

So, you were right, there were more stores downtown.

But that's not all we found - though there is a survival supply store down there, but it's a bit waterlogged with all the snow.

[ He still thinks they should make a trip back to go see if anything's salvageable-- wait. ]

But there are crocodile spirits.

Oh? How many? How big?

[Crocodiles are dangerous enough. Spirits could be trouble, and his mind immediately jumps to thinking of how to clear them out like one would with any pest animal.

But then again, they're spirits. Perhaps more intelligent than the comparison to an aquatic beast might suggest. Maybe it's worth asking someone like Daylight to attempt speaking with them - at a safe distance, of course. But Daylight is also enormous and made of metal, so maybe he's relatively better off in that sense already.

If that fails, oh well. Winters' shotgun is awfully good at spirit extermination, he's found.

He brings the capful of tea closer, cupping it in his hands. Nice and warm after that chilly walk.]

Oh... a great lot of them, we didn't stick around very long to find out, since we'd come mostly unarmed. But they had glowing eyes, I'd say at least fifty or so.

[ Yeah, not the most helpful of information, but last time Aziraphale went toe-to-toe with a spirit he got eaten. It was in dreamscape, but still. Not something he'd like to relive, and Steve had been freaking out in his arms. Have you ever held a teenager who wanted to escape your embrace while flying, and you didn't want to drop them into a pit of crocodiles where you weren't entirely sure if they functioned like normal crocodiles which leap several feet into the air? Yes, it was sort of like that. ]

We should go back sometime, more prepared. And with batteries.

Fifty!

[Yeah, that's a lot. Better bring Crowley with them for the ammunition if any attempt to talk fails.]

Well, let me know if you go back. I'd go along. Soldat, Daylight, and Crowley should all come - the first two in case there's any chance we can speak with them, and then Soldat and I can take them out if not. How's Crowley with a weapon?

[Probably pretty good, he can only assume. A demon that can magically produce bullets better know how to use them.]

What? Sure, he's proficient... He's been in wars, but honestly he's not the warrior.

But if they're still there, then it means that the whole store was submerged in the water beforehand. For awhile, it seems- they didn't want to be disturbed.

[ He shakes his head. ]

Perhaps we should send fliers only, to gather that which is dry.

Not a bad call. Communication attempts first though, in case the things can jump and don't like people overhead.

[That and while he sure doesn't mind having to kill spirits, especially in the name of self-defense, they stand to gain quite a bit more by staying on their good sides as much as possible. The creatures are everywhere, and he'd rather have them as allies for that reason especially. They know just how easily the spirits can overwhelm them.]

Alright, you have a deal. Will you let Daylight know? And I'll speak to Soldat'.

[ They should have plenty of time to plan something out. ]

Perhaps Misty, as well. She quite likes the Rat King, I think that she might actually want to see the crocodiles.

Edited 2020-02-11 03:12 (UTC)

Sure, I'll ask Daylight. And I still haven't spoken to Misty, though I know Soldat is fond of her. It would be a good opportunity to meet her.

[Guiltily, he thinks of Mary. She would love the crocodiles also, without a doubt. But he always worries she will underestimate the spirits; that her attempts to befriend will end in tragedy. Still, she's done well so far. Hasn't gotten herself killed despite her persistence. Maybe she would be all right, and he did promise her he'd bring her along some day since she always worries about him too.

He'll have to give that some consideration but there's no need to decide right away.]

Yes. I think you would like her, and! Perhaps we may be able to convince her to make something for the trip.

She is an excellent baker.

[ He looks off wistfully for a moment. Sorry Rosi, his username is lunchbreaks for a reason, this boy is always hungry. ]

But, yes, that is for another time.

There are other stores if you are interested.

--Did I mention the battery?

[Hm. A baker. Maybe she bakes things like... roasted cauliflower or sweet potatoes or whole chickens. That's still baking, right? Surely she can't also be like Ignis where everything involves bread and pastry and cakes.

Oh well. He's not going to ask people to cater to him.]

Battery? No, what battery?

[His eyebrows raise slightly under that thick fringe, clearly interested.]

Ah, there was an empty slot where a battery should go; really big ones.

[ He makes a motion with his arms to illustrate, it was not quite the size of a car battery. ]

Probably about this big all together, should have held five of them.

And a crank above it - we turned it, thinking it might've had some backup power source. I think it might be a generator. Wouldn't that be nice, we could find lights!

Huh. Well, maybe some of the shops over there have them in stock rooms. That whole shopping center looked enormous, maybe we can find some if we really search.

[He's still really bummed he didn't even get to go see it, but. That parade, man. Now that he understands their route, he's really itching to go back.]

I didn't see anything like that at the hotel, but there was a lot more to the building than what I saw. Lots of spirits. But the most interesting was the guestbook. Maes looked through it and said he saw names of people in there he knew from where he was before he came here. Also I think he said there were names of people who are currently here, or were here before but we hadn't even been downtown yet. So somehow they were here before the last reset.

Oh, that's very strange. But considering that people are brought back to life-- say, I was speaking to Eliot the other day, and he doesn't remember anything that happened in Beacon.

[ There are gears whirring in Aziraphale's head. Can you hear them creak? ]

You don't think it's a coincidence, do you?

Had anyone taken a photo of the guest book?

It's like with Eleven. Some people have probably been in and out of here for years. Versions of them, anyway.

[How awful.

And no, sadly, he shakes his head.]

I wish we'd gotten photos but we didn't expect our time to be so short. Next time someone's over there, they should. Or, I will. There were a lot of pages but it would be interesting to have a full list. I know Rastus is in it too. I think Maes went to talk to him about it, but I haven't heard yet what he found out.

Perhaps I'll speak to Maes first, then. Should be an interesting thing to see, who has been here and who has not. Perhaps not all their memories are erased.

[ He won't tell Rosi to save Bucky's anonymity, but Aziraphale has unearthed some of those suppressed memories. ]

I'm not sure it's that they're erased, but - maybe. People keep talking about alternate worlds. Saying if you know someone here and they die and don't return, that if they come back months later and don't remember it's because they came from a parallel universe. Same name, same life, same world, but just a few tiny differences.

[The frown on his face establishes that he does not like this idea. He's not sure yet whether he fully accepts it, either. But the thought that there's more than one him out there, more than one Law, living the same lives or slightly different ones, is deeply unnerving. Is there more than one Beacon, too? Is there any point to what they're doing if there are just more worlds with more World Eaters in some endless set of iterations out there?

Even at nearly ten feet tall, it's the sort of thing that makes him feel very small.]

O-oh.

Parallel universes.

That complicates things a bit.

[ He takes a deep breath; he certainly had some feelings about that with Castiel, but he didn't want to voice his concerns at the time. ]

This all really is unnecessarily complex.

That's what I thought. But I guess it's starting to look like they might be right, somehow.

[He doesn't like it, but the universe doesn't cater to him. Never has. Why would that change now?]

You've never heard about that, though? Not even, you know. As an angel?

What? No. There was just one universe for me, and one Earth. And I was sent to protect it and the people on it.

Didn't even stop to think there might be another one.

[ He heaves a sigh. ]

It's not like I ever had all the answers, but I usually have a better grasp than this. It's-- unnerving, I'll tell you.

[He nods his agreement. It must be troubling, being thousands of years old and only just learning something so monumental - assuming it's true. But the evidence is pretty convincing, Rosinante figures. Then again, he's in a poorer position to judge, being relatively quite young and entirely inexperienced in these sorts of metaphysical issues.]

When you were in your home world, were you able to ask your god questions like this? I assume you can't now. But I wonder if there's a way to reach out somehow, through the portal.

[ He looks over, shocked, demeanor changing immediately. ]

No!

Definitely not. Best not question our God and what She's told or not told us. It's all in Her Plan.

Besides, I-- I love Her, still, of course I do, but I was executed by other angels, and I don't think She is taking my calls.

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