008 | Blast From the Past

[eyesofaserpent]

[Crowley steps backward onto the plane, looking white as a sheet. He looks like he's seen a ghost. Well, he has.

His world had been restoring itself since that night he saw the shooting star (against all odds, mind, as the starts in the sky were gone due to the celestial way). Over the last several days some buildings had reappeared whole and people had started roaming the streets as if they'd always been there. The blood disappeared from the Thames and the ducks reappeared in St. James Park. And then his flat was restored complete with his Bentley. And Aziraphale's bookshop. Every time he turned around, something new seemed to appear.

While in the angel's bookshop, moments ago, Crowley was tapped on the shoulder. He turned, expecting a customer, but instead found Aziraphale. He stepped backwards onto the Plane instinctively.

He looks around, stunned beyond belief. That is the last person he ever expected to see again. His Aziraphale. Alive and whole, in the flesh before him. His presence felt so right, unlike when he was with the Aziraphale he'd met on the Plane. What... How.... His brain doesn't seem to be able to compute this.

Crowley heads for the bar and grabs a bottle of scotch. He just starts drinking out of the bottle.]

Bloody hell... This can't be bloody happening...

Comments

[holmes-fanatic.livejournal.com]

[In Conan's experience, you don't get that pale without experiencing some sort of a shock. As if Crowley's sudden appearance out of nowhere wasn't enough -- as a new arrival, Conan's yet to take the arrivals and departures from the Astral Plane for granted -- his expression and his actions were enough to capture the tiny detective's attention.

Hesitating momentarily outside the bar, Conan reasoned that if no one seemed to mind murder, they surely wouldn't kick him out of a bar, and pushed the door open.]

Mister -- are you all right?

[eyesofaserpent]

[He looks back at the boy, setting the bottle on the bar.]

No...

Yes...

Not really...

[holmes-fanatic.livejournal.com]

[Conan takes that as invitation to climb -- and he really does have to climb -- up onto a stool near Crowley.]

Sounds complicated.

[eyesofaserpent]

[He nods, taking another swig of scotch.]

It is. Terribly. Bloody complicated.

.....

[He looks at the bottle sadly, his gaze shielded from view by his sunglasses.]

[holmes-fanatic.livejournal.com]

[Bloody? That's UK slang, isn't it? Conan considered his companion thoughtfully.]

Ne ... is it something you can talk about?

[eyesofaserpent]

I.... Well.. [He frowns, drinking from the bottle again.]

Thirty years before I came here, my world suffered the apocalypse. After five years of war between Heaven and Hell, only a handful of demons and angels survived. They retreated to their respective realms leaving me alone on a world utterly destroyed.

Twenty-five years later and I have access to this Astral Plane. I live here now. That room and car next to the bar is mine. And... The Machine gave me something wonderful, Aziraphale. From another reality. He was my beloved in my world. So seeing him again, even different, was.... Extraordinary. I haven't seen him in over a month now...

Well, a few days back I was on my world and I saw a shooting star. Odd, but I still followed the human custom of wishing on it. I wished the apocalypse had never happened and that Aziraphale, my Aziraphale was back. Before long buildings and people started to return. And.... Just before coming here, there he was. As if he'd never been killed by his kind. It spooked me...

[holmes-fanatic.livejournal.com]

[As a detective, Conan had heard a lot of fantastic stories. This one though ... this one really took the cake. He had to suppress a lot of questions, focusing instead on the current issues troubling his companion.

Different history -- apocalypse would cut it. As for different rules -- existence of biblical creatures in his world, someone he knows but is different here -- so far it all correlates. But can it really be true?]

And you know the Aziraphale-san you saw in your world wasn't the one you met here? I read a pamphlet that says sometimes people from the Astral Plane might appear in your world ... You're sure it's related to the star?

[eyesofaserpent]

I'm not sure it's related to the star, but... He's definitely not the same one. He... They don't feel the same. And the one I met here can't come to my world without me bringing him as far as I can tell....

[holmes-fanatic.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. Ne, apart from the star and the things returning, has anything unusual happened to you lately? Here or in your world?

[ex_oneiromancer912]

Are you all right, sir? [Morgana does not enter the bar often; today, it was... perhaps to look for something flammable to test out more of Eithan's book. That Morgana had pyromania on the mind is clearly not important.]

[eyesofaserpent]

[He looks at the woman, regarding her carefully.]

Not exactly.

[ex_oneiromancer912]

Is there anything I might do to help?

[eyesofaserpent]

[He shakes his head.]

Involves my world. No one can help with that.

[ex_oneiromancer912]

We could, if you brought us there.

[eyesofaserpent]

I doubt it.

My world is supposed to be just rubble and blood instead of water. It's turning back into the way it was before the Great War. With people and everything.

[ex_oneiromancer912]

[The description of his world is awful. The idea of living in such a place. How could it turn back?] I can't see how that would be bad.

[eyesofaserpent]

I don't think this is a permanent change.

[onperfectlips.livejournal.com]

Crowley? Are you all right?

[eyesofaserpent]

[He looks up in surprise at the familiar voice. He hasn't seen Gwen for months. He offers her the bottle of scotch.]

Not really, Gwen. I'm seeing ghosts on my world. I know it can't last.

[onperfectlips.livejournal.com]

Are they unpleasant ghosts?

[She eyed the bottle of scotch with interest. Ale and wine were the only alcohol beverages available in Camelot.]

What is it?

[eyesofaserpent]

.... [He looks at the label.] Looks like it's 35 year scotch.

[He wills a shot glass into existence on the counter before him and pours a shot for her.]

They aren't unpleasant. Actually... Aziraphale's rather pleasant. He can't help it. In his nature. I.... Sometimes the dead should just stay dead.

[onperfectlips.livejournal.com]

[She sipped from the shot glass, initially rather experimentally.]

It's quite nice. [Or it could have been worse, at least.]

Aziraphale? I'm sorry. I didn't know.

[eyesofaserpent]

He's been dead for thirty years. I... Didn't think I'd ever see him again.

[onperfectlips.livejournal.com]

And it's difficult to make the most of it when you don't know how long it will last.

[eyesofaserpent]

There's no way it can last. It has to be an experiment and I didn't stay a woman forever.