Promise not to mind if you go your way and I go mine

[onlyanapple]

Who: Anthony Crowley and you?
What: Mourning lost friends
When: 9th June
Where: The Nines
Rating: PG13 maybe?

Crowley hated seeing the Nines so quiet. It wasn't right. He'd put thinking about the man who used to own this little piece of the castle aside to deal with that...mirror business. But now that was taken care of, he had nothing left but to mourn the Barney Stinson-shaped hole that had suddenly appeared in his life.

He let out a small, uneeded breath as he wandered behind the bar, as he had always done, helping himself to a few bottles of choice whiskey. It was stupid. This whole place was stupid. Barney was just a human, there were billions upon billions like him in the world. It wasn't Crowley's place to actually care about them. It was his place to tempt them, to make their short, insignificant lives miserable and reap the benefits from it.

Even he knew he was kidding himself with that spiel. It hadn't even been that way before he was dragged into Paradisa, and it had only become less true the longer he lived here. But Paradisa was the place where he was forced to interact with humanity on a much more personal level. He'd even made, pardon his language, friends here. And Barney Stinson had been one of his best. No. That wasn't right. Barney was more than that. He'd been family.

The demon flopped down in the chair Barney had chosen and designated as 'for Crowley use only' and sat back, his hand shifting his sunglasses slightly as he pinched the bridge of his nose. This wasn't getting any easier. The longer he stayed here, the more chance there was of someone he actually cared about leaving this stupid place. And it was making him feel tired. And old. Someone, did he feel old.

Normally, he'd take these issues to the angel, who would assure him that this was All In The Plan, or to Barney who could solve anything with a quip and a bottle of booze and one of his dreaded High Fives. But they were both gone. Vanished home to live their own lives.

And so, Crowley decided to rely on the solace of alcohol. His good friend who never, ever left. Or died. He'd seen Yuan's corpse in the lobby, just as everyone else did. It had been a while since the castle had decided to off someone. He vaguely wondered if it was a bad omen. He raised his bottle in a silent toast to those gone before taking a long swig. It was going to be a long night.

Comments

[persequor]

For no reason? It just....does it?

wow gosh TF remember you're in a log

[onlyanapple]

The demon shrugged.

"I doubt the castle has reasons for doing anything it does," he said. "And if it did, they would be convoluted, stupid ones."

[persequor]

She can't refute that. She makes a vague assenting motion and looks around again.

"Is this a meeting place of sorts?"

[onlyanapple]

"It was the headquarters for the Awesome Committee," the demon's smile dropped. "Though I'm not sure how well that will live on with the head gone. It's kind of an empty idea without him."

[persequor]

She cants her head. "What was the idea?"

[onlyanapple]

"He wanted it to be a place where 'awesome' people could hang out," Crowley paused. "I think that's the jist anyway, to be honest most of the time I tuned him out when he started talking like an annoying American."

[persequor]

"What's an American?"

[onlyanapple]

Crowley laughed, sitting back.

"They're inhabitants of a country on Earth," he explained. "Loud, annoying lot, really. Have a tendency to try to be better than everyone else."

[persequor]

"I think I've met some of them." She wrinkled her nose a bit. "They are annoying."

[onlyanapple]

"They really are," Crowley nodded sagely. "But once you get used to them, you can tune out most of what they say, and only pick up the important things that come out of their mouths."

[persequor]

"That goes for most of the people here. You have to put up with entire conversations of nothing for maybe one thing of value." Claiming a seat, she swung her feet lazily. Her toes just touched the floor.

[onlyanapple]

Crowley doesn't begrudge her that. After all, she's proven herself likeable company thus far, more so than most of the little brats that ran about this place.

"Welcome to life in Paradisa," he said. "After a while you just stop expecting anything interesting from them."

[persequor]

"And from the castle?"

[onlyanapple]

"Now the castle, that's a different matter," Crowley said thoughtfully. "This place, well, it has a habit of being entirely too interesting."

[persequor]

She stares at the floor for a moment before raising her gaze. "What's the worst it's done?"

[onlyanapple]

"That's...more personal taste," he said. "Some found it at it's worse when it made the more powerful residents believe they were townspeople. Others, when the space zombies showed up, turning a bunch of residents into crazy lunatics and another bunch into corpses. The list goes on, it really depends on who you're talking to."

[persequor]

Zombies. She knows that word. She's not as lost during conversations anymore.

"Which do you think?"

[onlyanapple]

He didn't even have to think about it.

"There was a time where we went to a...strange world. Made all the demonic beings of the castle ansty, and eventually flipped that dark, nasty switch in their brains and made them attack the people of the castle."

[persequor]

That sounds very familiar. "Was there a Marker of sorts involved?"

[onlyanapple]

"That was the space zombies," Crowley tilted his head to one side. "You've been paying attention to thinks in the journal, I take it?"

[persequor]

"No." She shakes her head. "There was a Marker in that other place. The one people were taken to? We were told not to touch it just in case."

[onlyanapple]

"Really?" Crowley looked intrigued by that. "Well, I missed that helpful piece of information. Yeah, it's probably best that no one touched it. No one wants that mess coming back all over again."

[persequor]

"There were a lot of things there. The Marker and I heard someone talk about a tree that was once here too. There were things from people's homes too." She mentally lists the things of note they encountered. Those first three days at least had been interesting.

[onlyanapple]

"A tree?" oh. Oh balls. "Did it look....wrong? Did anyone mention a Slenderman? Because...we've had that tree here before."

[persequor]

"No one really told me anything." She looks vaguely annoyed. "It didn't look like a normal tree. The adults wouldn't let me or the other boy with us go near it. What did that tree do?"