demonicmiracle | (duplicity) ic contact

[there's a very strong part of her that desperately wants to hurry home and rid herself of everything she'd done in the last eighteen hours, but the offer is there and he could very well be a listening ear for what she'd done to put herself in such a position. so, she agrees.]

If you don't have other plans for the morning, I would like that very much, though I'm not very hungry. [and, feeling a bit formal, she adds:] Thank you.

[He waves away the thanks, gesturing back towards the ensuite.]

I'm all yours for a few hours, plenty long enough for breakfast and a shower. The towels in there are all fresh conjured, and there's a toothbrush and toothpaste on the sink. Take as much time as you need, I'll stay down here 'til you're done.

[Just in case that's a reassurance she needs.

In the bathroom, a set of fluffy black (of course) towels appear, including a wash cloth and a fresh bar of soap that smells like cedar. Hanging on the back of the door once she's done, she'll find a long silk slip in lieu of cotton undergarments, and a white dress. He tried to go for something modern, while still being comfortable and modest.]

Edited 2020-05-01 05:19 (UTC)

[it doesn't take as long as one might think it should. she's fairly adept at taking care of herself in the bathroom, despite rarely having to do so at home. it's been a while since she's been there, however, so she's back downstairs in the dress he's provided in less than thirty minutes.

freshly scrubbed with damp hair, she looks impossibly younger. the headache has dimmed and her mouth feels less cotton-y. despite the knowledge that he has a knack for snapping his fingers and making things appear or disappear, anne's cleaned up after herself as much as she can out of politeness and gratitude and she eases into the front of his place with a lighter step and less a feeling of shame.]

I feel much more human.

[The first 15 of those 30 minutes is spent googling "best food to eat after a hangover" and trying to sort through what's bullshit and what isn't, while also taking into consideration the fact that Anne said she wasn't hungry.

She'll find him at the dining table, draped across a chair sipping a coffee. The spot set to his side has a bowl of oatmeal, topped with sliced banana, and a steaming mug of ginger tea. There's a small bowl of honey, as well, so she can sweeten both to her tastes.]

Shower's are good for that, that's what I like about them. [A little joke!] Take your time with the food, no harm if you don't eat it all.

[rather than say 'thank you' again, she offers a different type of gratitude.]

I appreciate your patience. [she does sweeten both and, lifting the tea first, takes a small sip, closing her eyes to the way it soothes her going down.] I was quite a mess last night and you... [she glances at him.] Were very kind when you didn't have to be.

[the cup is set down and she lifts the spoon.]

[Dealing with gratitude is still a tricky thing, though he's been working on it. Still, he lifts a shoulder in a lazy shrug.]

We're friends, aren't we? Wasn't just going to leave you alone drunk in a bar, I know what goes on in those places.

[That's the problem with being what he is, he knows exactly how awful people can be.]

Do you? [a small nod.] I suppose you must.

[she watches her cup intently as she confesses:] I was hoping I might find a solution to my problem there. So far, I haven't had much luck. A wizard I cannot look at and a man with-- [she bares her teeth slightly.] A vampire, he calls himself. Nice man.

Demon.

[He says it simply, as an explanation. Regardless of how much time he's spent in clubs on his own, he knows they're lovely little dens of sin and awfulness because they make his life incredibly easy, whenever he needed to report on some demonic activity.]

My first month I just slept with strangers, didn't even learn their names. It's not — easy, this place. [He'd tried to operate the way he did back home, and he would've kept doing it and kept hating it if he hadn't been lucky with Martin.] There are hotels you can go to, where you watch people. They'll never see you, you don't have to touch anyone or do anything 'cept watch, and it counts towards quota. M'not sure if that's better or worse. But it's an option.

[if there's something she's learned to do in her lifetime, it's endure. laying there for the good of france isn't something she's had to do - at least louis was kind - but she's loved and lost and loved again, so it's difficult to think of having sex and hating it when she knows how it can be. his solution seems lonely, but she's been lonely before, too.

nodding as she drinks the tea he's provided, she considers it.] Perhaps that's what I'll do. [she glances at him before setting the cup down and reaching for the oatmeal.] Please tell me you didn't sit down here all night.

S'probably what I'd end up doing, if Aziraphale was gone.

[The idea of going back to sleeping with strangers is awful, but he'd feel weird about sleeping with people he actually likes, as if it was some sort of betrayal, even though he knows Aziraphale would understand.]

It wouldn't have been the first time if I did, sleeping's more a hobby than a necessity, for me. [He's spent plenty of nights watching movies, or reading, or even just chilled out listening to music.] But nah, I uh, went to see Aziraphale for a bit. Needed to have a chat, about the offer I made you.

Did you?

[she finds it interesting that he's just said that he'd go back to watching people rather than participating if his angel left, but then says he'd gone to mention his offer to that same angel. she's not going to do him the dishonor of asking how that particular talk went - privacy, and all - but now that he's proposed a different way for her to meet her quota, she does feel it necessary to give him an out.]

You know I won't ask you to make good on your offer when you've just given me an alternative. Especially when it comes to disrupting the life of an angel.

Seemed right, to make sure we were on the same page.

[Which they weren't, as it turns out, but it led to a conversation they needed to have and resulted in several hours of very good sex, so if anything, he should be thanking her, but that might be admitting too much.]

If you wanted, you know, company for it, I think that'd be alright. S'just a bit tricky, figuring out how to be... together, in this place.

Company?

[she's a bit confused and puts that confusion into words.]

You want to accompany me to watch others engage in activities that we -- [she motions to the two of them.] -- will not be participating in. Just to watch.

[He just shrugs, a little bemused.]

Dunno, if you'd feel uncomfortable being on your own in a place like that. [And then it occurs to him that like, he's a demon, and his attitude to this sort of thing is a little different.] I've been to hundreds of orgies before, watching people have sex isn't much more exciting than watching them play cricket. S'just an offer, if you'd prefer to be alone, that's alright.

No, I. [she's honestly just contemplating the idea of merely just watching to watch.] I've never thought about watching.

It's not something I've done before. Watched others, I mean. [and, because he's there and she wants to know, she asks. he's always been more forthcoming than she thinks anyone else might.] Hundreds. Any particular reason why, if you didn't find them exciting?

Some people are into it, I suppose.

[Watching and being watched. He can understand the appeal on a one-to-one basis, maybe even theoretically more than that in a controlled environment, but it'd still have to be someone he gave a shit about, not just strangers.]

I did it for work. Sometimes people need a little extra encouragement, so I'd stick around to make sure it all went smoothly, and it made it easier to file reports.

[Honestly, sex wasn't ever his favorite indulgence to inspire, but it was good in a pinch if he needed to up his numbers.]

[anne's quiet for a moment, listening as she takes another bite, then takes even more time to contemplate what he's said as she watches him with a steady gaze before lifting her tea to her mouth.]

I find it soothing when you discuss moments of the work you did. [shaking her head, she sets the cup down and lifts her spoon again.] I don't know why, but I suppose it makes me feel somewhat grounded, knowing that everything truly did have a purpose. [she gives a small smile in the direction of her bowl.] That being watched during sex, enjoying it, dildos... have a purpose. I wish you would tell me more.

[she takes a bite and glances at him once more.]

And I like your eyes.

[Crowley isn't much a fan of being considered, but he busies himself with finishing up his coffee as if he doesn't notice her watching him.

He can't help arch an eyebrow at what she says; he can't imagine how demons want people to go to Hell is especially reassuring, but he supposes that sometimes religious people are just sort of weird like that. At least Anne isn't intense with the judgement thing, the way some Christians are.]

The lot of you here are bloody weird, most humans find them unsettling.

[Leonardo never seemed to mind, but he's one of the few humans who ever saw Crowley without his glasses after he started wearing them.]

And I can tell you about things I've done, if you like. Most of them aren't much about sex. Last big thing I pulled off back in London was bringing down the phone network, like the devices we have here.

[It was a ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated plan, considering he could've done it with a snap of his fingers.]

[if demons want people to go to hell, wouldn't angels want them to go heaven? it seems as if there's balance, at least in anne's eyes, and if there isn't... well, she doesn't ask for clarification.

it's less about sex, though if he has stories, she wouldn't mind hearing them. more about what a demon considers work, really. how he spent six thousand years. what time is like from that kind of perspective. again, she doesn't specify because she's learned that demanding answers from crowley doesn't seem to work.]

Weird? [she thinks about it and nods once at her tea.] Perhaps. But they're you and I like you.

[she settles back on her seat and takes him in again.]

Was there a reason or was this just for a bit of chaos?

[she doesn't understand the scope.]

[He finds that response doesn't necessarily surprise him. Aziraphale and Martin would likely say the same thing, although that's a completely different sort of relationship.]

Don't get sappy on me, I'll kick you out if I have to.

[It's obvious that he won't, that he's protesting for the sake of it, because Genuine Emotion is difficult to deal with and he'd rather deflect with a joke.]

Mm, there's a reason to most of what I do. Most demons really only work on the small scale, but that sort of stuff isn't enough when there's billions of humans. Way I see it, you introduce a minor inconvenience for a big portion of the population, and that frustration spirals. They get angry, a bit nasty, they take it out on their assistant, the store clerk, their husband, and their souls get a little more tarnished every time. I don't need to tell people how to be awful, just have to give them the nudge to want to be awful.

[at his mild threat, she merely smiles and waits for him to go on.

it makes sense as he says it and she nods along at the reasoning.] Do you find that most humans want to be awful or do they need a nudge?

[she's actually curious for her own sake and the sake of the things she's seen back home.]

[Why do so many people ask him about the inherent nature of humanity?]

Humans are just humans, there's really no saying whether most of them are awful or good or what-have-you. You've got the capacity for all of it, I'm just doing a job. Was doing a job, not really sure what I'll do with myself once I get home.

[It's different here, where he has like, a social life to keep him amused. But he doesn't really have anyone aside from Aziraphale, back on Earth.]

[well, that wasn't quite what she'd asked, but she doesn't argue semantics.]

Being a demon isn't your job any more? [that's new.] How does one just... stop?

[is that a god-appointed position that she just takes away, or...?]

[He'd thought it best not to answer that one too truthfully.]

Yes, well, nah — I'm still a demon, just not doing work for Hell. [He shrugs, polishing off the last of his coffee as he works out how to frame this.] I cocked up the apocalypse, sided with an angel, and killed another demon in a... way that demons aren't supposed to kill. They tried to execute me, failed, and I put the fear of — me, into them. So they'll leave him alone for a while, I hope.

[This is not the entire truth.

He's revealed the full truth to very, very few people. It isn't anything personal against Anne, he just knows how easily information can trade hands, in this place, and he can't risk it, on the slim chance that someone like Hastur or Beez shows up.]

[she'll never know the difference.

she does, however, think she recognizes a player on the stage and says:] Your angel? [before nodding along to the rest of it.] I certainly hope they've all learned their lesson.

[the 'anne' way of agreeing with what he's done.]

And I hope they leave you along for a very long time. [a thoughtful smile into her cup.] And that you and your angel live the next several thousand years undisturbed. [a pause.] It sounds like you've both earned it.

(duplicity) ic contact

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oh my html, tragic

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