Open Post: Hooked On A Feeling

[rememberettersberg]

What hobbies have you got? Susan had asked him, and he had to admit to not being sure. At school and for some time after, he played rugby. More recently, he only watched it on the television Peter had set up in the tech cave. Here at the mansion, he has books and research and the beginnings of mentoring, but it occurs to Nightingale that he has been building himself a facsimile of work and very little else. He's survived that way for half a century and been perfectly all right (though others may disagree with that assessment) but here, in this hinterland between realities, he is feeling a growing itch for... whimsy, perhaps.

At this moment, propping up the bar with a pint of bitter and a crochet hook, no one would dare accuse him of being whimsical. Nightingale is scowling fiercely at the hook, the yarn, his pint, and the book sitting open beside it. Company would be more than welcome.

Comments

[rememberettersberg]

"Oh, that's quite all right," Nightingale replies, surprised. "I'm happy to help, truly. If we're all to remain here together, then we should be making the best of it."

[involuntaryturncoat]

"It's hard to know, exactly." He frowns. "While the world was being torn apart, recordkeeping was hardly anyone's priority. Somewhere between three and four thousand years. The seal was... imperfectly created, and it started to weaken, gradually releasing us."

[rememberettersberg]

"And to think I've been feeling ancient at 113," comes the very dry reply. "Was the Dark One also released? It must have been a very rude awakening if so."

[involuntaryturncoat]

He lets out a short, amused laugh. "Channeling increases lifespans, in proportion to your strength in the Power. I was over three hundred years old before bargaining for immortality, and over four hundred when I was sealed away." He shakes his head. "As of when I arrived here, he was not released fully. He was able to influence the world directly once more, but was still working toward full release. And his Chosen were... dropping. Events... fell so that even I lost my immortality, was marked as a betrayer, and ultimately killed-- or would have been if I hadn't arrived here instead."

[timebethine]

"It must claw at you, to know that you can't resolve it. I'm sorry," says Laertes. He looks down at his hands. "I know not what I would do, if I were so betrayed. What did you intend for her?"

[wickedwit]

Claudius laughs at the memory of that first meeting. "If thou dost need me to be gentle with thee, thou needst only ask -- in all things," he says, taking the slimmest chance to flirt. More serious, though still affecting a lighter tone, he says, "But if thou art questioning what this means for thy free will, or the reality of thy world ... thou shouldst know that I had a poorer notion of my free will in Denmark, when I believed my decisions were secrets between myself and God and not the subject of stageplays. However many shocks or surprises this place presents me with, I've not yet given up on it." Even if he has to rework his entire cosmology again to make sense of it.

[ravkanwitch]

"It's been nice to feel a real sense of community lately," Nina agrees. "If there's one thing that's more important than flirtations or good food - even waffles - it's friendship."

She nudges him lightly with her elbow. "I never thought we'd become friends! Unexpected. But not unwelcome."

[rememberettersberg]

"You must find yourself either terribly bored here or simply basking in the mundanity. What's a tiny undead invasion after the things you've experienced?" Nightingale grins a little.

[rememberettersberg]

"We'd had no time to form a plan," he says. "Yet another reason to worry about the situation I've left behind, I'm afraid. If she'd stayed, I would have attempted to have her apprenticeship formalised like Peter's. There has been a significant reemergence of magical activity in our world - the more people trained to respond to it, the better."

[rememberettersberg]

Nightingale rolls his eyes good-naturedly at the flirting. "I suppose it makes no difference in the end. As surreal as the past few months have been, it certainly feels real enough to me. Let's find Aziraphale, see what he has to say about Les Miserables."

[rememberettersberg]

"Welcome indeed." He nudges her in return. "We should find you a good sticky toffee pudding if that's something you've yet to experience."

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Oh, this place has been, by and large, a welcome respite," he says. "Undead included. I came from a world where there may have been only one man who wouldn't have happily seen me dead, and him only barely."

[timebethine]

"Do you know what caused this reemergence? Or does that cause remain veiled to you?"

[wickedwit]

“Let’s,” Claudius agrees. He pushes himself away from the bar with a new-honed purpose. “We’ll have a look at the library first. I believe he nests there for much of his time.” Like a baby chick, which Aziraphale sometimes resembles. Something about fluffy blonde hair and ruffled feathers.

[az_fell]

Well, Aziraphale has never even so much as pretended not to be predictable. One develops habits after millennia on Earth. Crowley likes that, he thinks -- that ninety-nine point nine nine nine repeating percent of the time, he knows where to find Aziraphale.

Anyway. Yes, Aziraphale's in the library, in what he has personally deemed its comfiest (and, crucially, also its coziest) armchair. He's paging, with a skeptical look on his face, through a rather flimsy volume that has Practical Exercises for Young Magicians, by Amelia Popper stamped into its spine.

[rememberettersberg]

"Aziraphale, how have you been?" Nightingale begins, automatically bound to politeness. He regards the title of the book with some interest. "Is this another accident of conjuration or something you meant to be reading?"

[ravkanwitch]

Her eyes light up a little at that idea. "I haven't, but that sounds wonderful."

[wickedwit]

Naturally, Claudius prefers to start polite, and gives his own mannerly bow from where he stands at Nightingale's side. He tries not to smile too much at Aziraphale nestled in his comfy (and, crucially, cozy) armchair.

[az_fell]

"Mr. Nightingale," says Aziraphale, and then, with a bit more suspicion, "and Claudius. Firstly: believe it or not, I actually found this in the stacks here. You're welcome to borrow it. Secondly: to what do I owe the pleasure?"

[rememberettersberg]

"We've been developing some theories about how we all came to be here." Nightingale pulls up a chair and sits beside him. "And your difficulties in producing works featuring any of the residents came up in conversation." Here he hesitates, unsure how to explain adequately, but braces himself and forges on ahead. "We were hoping you might try to whip up a copy of Les Miserables to test a thought I had."

[wickedwit]

"It will take only a moment of your time," Claudius promises, leaning against the other side of Aziraphale's chair¹. "And it's quite a promising theory. I'm sure you're as curious as anyone else about this particular mystery."

¹ Because he'd never sit when he can lean.

[rememberettersberg]

"Then to the kitchen we must go. This is a matter of the utmost importance."

[rememberettersberg]

"It's probably tied to whatever is keeping me young." He shrugs. "There aren't enough of us left to make a proper study of it."

[rememberettersberg]

"May I ask why?" Nightingale is projecting the total lack of cop energy that has been standing him in such good stead here. "You've told me much of your world's history, and I thank you for it, but I don't think any of it explains why you might have garnered such a reputation."

[az_fell]

"I am curious," admits Aziraphale, looking mildly irritated at the encroachment on his personal bubble from Claudius. Not, of course, that he'll say anything. "I can try to miracle up Les Misérables, but I can already tell you that I won't be successful. We've got a secondary character and a minor character from it running around the premises." Still, just to demonstrate, he sets his reading aside and makes a little gesture. No Hugo is in evidence, but he does produce a copy of A Court of Thorns and Roses. He makes a disturbed face and instantly banishes it again.