05 🍎 No sight of solid ground and never look straight down

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

[Open spam (starters?)]
[The livery stables are disgusting. As if it wasn't enough to have huge, stinking live horses around, they have to deal with their inanimate remains and bulking spectral forms. He was happy to leave them but displeased to find himself in the Guardsmen's Tower, though luckily it seems diversions work as well with ghosts as live people. He tarries for a bit in the Banquet Hall, unable to resist spooking a few of the ghosts (if you'll pardon the pun). The ballroom proves trickier, and the crowd fights him before he gives in to the dance.*

It's in the Menagerie that he really loses his nerve. He thought it was filled only with particularly evocative statues, but that was before noticing the life in their eyes. That's when he decides to leave -- made more difficult by the swarm of astral serpents and the thump of approaching footsteps.

This is all too oddly familiar for comfort.]


[Video]
[When Crowley broadcasts it's from a cell in the guest rooms. Behind him the Stern Woman reads aloud from her book, intoning his sins. Not all the speech is audible: "lies," "temptation," "corruption," and "damnation" are repeated. He seems entirely unconcerned by this, even relaxed.]

Right, that's it, I'm throwing in the towel. I got past the guards, the overexcitable diners, the dancers**, and the spectral worms and giant robot in the freakish statue gallery. [He grimaces; that was one of the more disturbing places he's been.] Why is it always giant robots with you people?

This place is safer than anywhere else I've seen. I'm staying here. [He powers up his iPod and puts on a pair of earbuds.] I'll go back to the Mezzanine later. Text me if I miss anything.



*It's not as stupid as it sounds.
**This occasion marks the first time since 1886 that Crowley was grateful he knew how to waltz.

Comments

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

No, which is why I'm camping out here. Nothing's come in, I think they're afraid of her.

[tucky]

oh

but your getting called damned and that ca'nt be fun

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

Am I? I can't hear it over this album.

[He's very proud of the iPod. It was one of his more ingenious recent projects and no one could say it didn't pay off.]

[tucky]

among other nasty things yea. but maybe she just means your going to BE damned and you have a chance to stop it. like a warning.

what are you listening to

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

You think so? What I heard didn't sound like constructive criticism.

This is Nirvana.

[tucky]

it was just a guess i do'nt know.

i wish my ipod had come along with me from the barge.

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

This is why mine's always in my jacket.

[tucky]

feel like coming over and sharing

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

Drag him over here, it's safer.

[tucky]

i do'nt think so, people are already looking for us here.

and i do'nt want to be near that woman.

[She's worried that she'd tell her she's damned, too.]

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

It's not as if she's really got news.

[tucky]

i just do'nt want to hear her say anything about me is all.

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

You could come in singing at the top of your lungs and not stop until you have the headphones.




Fine, I'll come by.

[tucky]

i do'nt want to leave this spot cuz this is where i said i would be

thanks

[And she'll be there, waiting.]

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

[It doesn't take him too long to get to the stairwell: the beings in the guest rooms sound like younger tempters, and he invented that. He's got no fear of them, is even a little annoyed to be leaving. He at least knows what to expect there.]

Hi. [He plucks out the earbuds and dangles the iPod by the cord.] You said something about wanting this?

[tucky]

Hi.

[She gives him a little nod in greeting.]

Can I listen? I mean, I ain't asking to steal them or nothing. But there's two earbuds-- you know, one for each person.

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

[Oh.

That's a lot nicer than he was expecting her to be. He blinks, and nods after a beat.] Sure, I guess. You can pick the band.

[Crowley settles down next to her and hands her the mp3 player. The music on it is a mixture of classical music, early blues and jazz, and popular rock and pop from the 1960s up until 2005.

There's a frustrating amount of Queen on it. No matter what he tries he can't get the stuff off.]

[tucky]

[She likes bickering with Crowley as much as the next person, but right now she's just tired out. She takes the offered earbud, shifting Mason on her arms a little and sticking it in her ear.]

I don't care much.

[But she settles on something recent and pop-like-- something familiar, that she would have heard before on the radio at home.]

... Thanks.

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

[He can see that, and he wonders if he should take advantage of her fatigue and play some trick or run a con. But he really doesn't feel like it. He feels like listening to Gwen Stefani with an adorable and unintentionally hilarious little human for awhile.

He pauses before putting his own earbud in.]

For what?

[tucky]

Letting me listen. And coming to sit with me.

[She strokes Mason's hair, leaning her shoulder against Crowley's juuuust a little.]

This is the safest place I could find to wait, but that don't mean it ain't spooky and cold.

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

Yeah, well, you're warm. And we don't have her yelling fire and brimstone here.

[Now that's an interesting development. He holds back a smile as he loops his arm around her shoulders.]

How'd you get away from the monsters in the bedroom? Or any of the other things here?

[tucky]

[She leans on him fully, head on his shoulder.]

I got a weapon in the basement.

[She nod at an iron fire poker, lying on the floor next to her.]

And I ran into different people sometimes, but we always got separated. The monsters in the bedroom... I don't know. I was all, like, tempted by them a little bit, but I wasn't in there for that long so they didn't catch hold of me; not totally. And then I found Mason, and I knew I needed to get him out, 'cause he was really far gone. So I did.

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

Ouch. Stay away from you.

[Smart thinking. A fire poker might not make too much of a difference on many of the beings here but at least it gives her some hope. He needs to find a weapon of his own.]

Who? And who's coming to meet you? [He nods and may squeeze her a little bit.] Sorry you guys went through that. Especially Captain Coma over there.

What did the monsters try?

[tucky]

Not sure yet. A couple people, maybe.

What did they try on me or on him?

[sauntervaguelydownwards]

Yeah, but who?

On you. Did you see everything that happened to him?