tartanisstylish: (reading dorian gray fanfiction)
Aziraphale ([personal profile] tartanisstylish) wrote in [community profile] caveofsapphires2012-05-19 10:59 pm

goddamn your confusion, he's got pretty persuasion [closed]

WHO: Aziraphale, Gabriel, Re-l [closed]
WHAT: Aziraphale discovers his persuasive powers via the obnoxious catalyst of Gabriel and Re-l in his bidness.
WHERE: Gates's, the outer ring, Diamond City.
WHEN: May 15, late afternoon.
WARNINGS: Possible mild violence. Gabriel.

-

The first few days, when he wasn't exploring, Aziraphale was sleeping. There was a great deal that he had to do to make his - John's - home livable again, primarily dusting, but he was still trying to acclimatize to the fact that he'd have to do it all by hand. As a result, he didn't even start until the Tuesday morning after they'd arrived.

It was fortunate that John's shop was not similar enough to Aziraphale's own in London to make him nostalgic. In layout it was not terribly different - the large front room full of shelves crammed with things, the small back room with a squeaky old door, the bedroom and kitchen upstairs, and, of course, the layers of dust on everything - but in every other respect, from the technology to the well-worn cookware in the kitchen, it was different enough that he could convince himself he'd had nothing to do with the creation of it. The smell unnerved him, though, he had to admit. He felt that a shop full of knowledge in whatever form should smell like paper and binding and glue, but the metal shelves and the assortment of differently-sized consoles behind the plywood desk made the whole place smell like the mobile shop Crowley had made him go to once. Even the Library in the Cave had smelled more right.

The back room had been a nice surprise, of course. There wasn't anything by way of paper books in the front of the shop - presumably they hadn't been profitable for John, assuming John had actually existed - but there was a small shelf in the back room absolutely stuffed with paper books. He hadn't recognized any of the titles, of course, although he'd spent a mad moment looking through the shelf for a copy of Lyrical Ballads, or The Picture of Dorian Grey, or a Bible.

That was impossible. Nor were any of these first editions. Still, some of them looked interesting, at the very least, and he made a note of several possible starting points. If he had books, he had some sort of familiar ground, and he was da-- bloody well going to take advantage of any he could find.

Another lay upstairs, sitting on the stove as if waiting for him: a kettle. He smiled to himself when he saw that before filling it up, putting it on to boil, and locating with great ease a bag of looseleaf Earl Grey in the cabinet by the sink. He found and washed a tea infuser, pot, and mug just as the kettle whistled, poured it in, and sat in relaxed silence as it steeped. No hope for milk, of course, but there was sugar.

He'd get to cleaning, he thought as he took the first sip of what was really the best tea he could hope for under the circumstances. He really would. Eventually.

Later, he would be very angry with himself for leaving the front door unlocked. Very angry indeed.
trickntreats: (do you wander through this life)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-20 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
The last several days had mostly consisted of doing quick (or at least as quick as the caravan could manage) runs through Sylvester's old routes and visiting some places Gabriel knew other Sleepers would be returning to. The archangel was, currently, exceedingly pleased with himself for pulling off the prank on the Cave, but the sheer luck at not having been found after he'd fallen asleep in his hiding place wasn't lost on him.

Originally he'd planned for a prank a day. Now he was obviously going to have to scale that back, but that was okay. He was starting to figure out his limits, and even though he'd been tired after the last one, he hadn't felt too sick.

Either way, it meant Gabriel was in a very good mood as he decided to, finally, visit Aziraphale's shop. He'd found a set of bells hidden in the wardrobe and hung them on the four corners of the caravan's eaves; they weren't cowbells, being far more melodic, but were loud and bordering on obnoxious anyway. So he was announced as he trundled up to the shop, parked across the street, and after a moment or two of quiet swept into the store. "The fun-maker is in the house!"
brightblueeyeshadow: (obnoxious face)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-20 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
Re-l had seen the bookshop last week, on her first walk around the city, but at that point it hadn't been open. She had made a note of it and moved on. Now she was growing antsy. She needed something to do. And while her ultimate goal was clear, how she was going to get there was not.

In the meantime, she might as well read.

She heard a strange clanging sound when she a couple of streets away from the shop, but it didn't seem to be another siren, just very annoying. It stopped without her doing anything, which was even better. She rounded the last corner to the shop, saw the caravan, saw the cowbells, and stopped dead.

She almost walked away. Irritating superhumans were the last thing she needed right now. But she had really wanted that book, and she had never let anybody stop her from getting what she wanted. Now was not the time to start.

Squaring her shoulders, she slid the door open and slipped inside, making as little noise as possible. This turned out to be futile, because the shop was really not big enough to hide in. Re-l chose option b, and walked up to the counter, studiously ignoring Gabriel.

"Is there anybody here?" she called out, projecting her voice into the back room.
trickntreats: (i'll just float away and let)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-20 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
At the sound of the door opening behind him, Gabriel whirled around and grinned. "Hi, Masa!" He trailed after her right up to the desk, eyebrow cocked when she said ... absolutely nothing.

"Don't mind me, I'm just chopped liver over here," he said, a little bemused. Then Aziraphale came downstairs and Gabriel clapped his hands with faux joy. "Hey, Azzy, just in time! Quick, I've gotta get you both out of here before you lose any definition of the word 'fun'!"

And once again he was ignored. The archangel looked between them both, and slowly a sly grin crept onto his face. Re-l might see it in a reflection. Aziraphale might see it past her shoulder. Both of them would have been wise to find it unnerving.
brightblueeyeshadow: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-20 12:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm looking for something to read," Re-l said to the man behind the counter. "Preferably non-fiction, and as informative as you can find. History is my first choice, then sociology and related disciplines. Science if there's nothing else." She had been planning to ask for a few novels as well, but with Gabriel here that idea was out the window. He would never let her live it down.

His bouncy tone suggested that she wasn't going to get out of this easily, though.

"I'm not staying," she said. "You can annoy someone else for a change. This unfortunate bookseller, apparently."
trickntreats: (willing to dream forever)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-21 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
After his screw-ups with Re-l and then the Doctor, no, there was no way Re-l was going to get out of here that easily. Things had been way too serious a couple of days back, and that meant 'Loki' was coming back with a vengeance to compensate. Being truthful was just getting Gabriel in trouble, otherwise. At least playing the fool made things fun.

The archangel lifted his eyebrows innocently, and behind his back twitched his fingers to click the door's lock into place. "Who, me? Would I do that?" He grinned. "As it happened, adopted brother of mine, I got here first. She's a line-cutter. I'd say you should toss her out on her ass, but it'd be a pity to damage it."
brightblueeyeshadow: (cunning)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-21 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
Brother? Re-l looked at the bookseller again, with a great deal more distaste. Who on earth could be related to someone as irritating as Gabriel? And did that imply that this new man was an angel too? She bit her thumb, reminding herself that it didn't matter in the slightest. She was only here for the books. The rest she could ignore.

"A reader of some kind would be helpful. If there is one in my apartment, I can't find it."

She leant against the counter and looked back at Gabriel. He had a very smug expression on his face, as though he had just got one up on her. That was definitely not allowed.

"Hmm," she said, her voice cool and controlled. "Did you have a legitimate reason for being here? Because it looked to me like you were indulging yourself in the flashiest, tackiest way possible, with as little regard for everyone else as you usually have."
trickntreats: (do you wander through this life)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-21 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Azzy," Gabriel said breezily, wandering closer to the shelves by the counter and prodding one of the e-readers there. Dusty little computer-things. He picked some up, shuffling them in his hands as if he'd just been dealt a hand of (oversized) cards.

"And of course I do. I wanted to visit my not-brother! What's a more legitimate reason than that?" He shot them both such an innocent look that it curled in on itself and became evil just out of principle.
brightblueeyeshadow: (glaring)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-21 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
"Is that going to take much longer?" Re-l's facade of politeness was crumbling quickly. She hadn't wanted to see anyone today, and the memory of the last time she'd seen Gabriel was only making things worse. Her fingers drummed out a sharp tattoo on the countertop, her mouth twitching.

"Not-brother. So he is an angel as well." She was the only normal human in the world, it seemed. She really needed to get her hands on a gun. And soon.
trickntreats: (i'll just hang out here and watch)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-22 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Absolutely everyone," Gabriel assured the other angel cheerfully, even though it wasn't true. It was true enough. Re-l knew, and the Doctor, and ... actually, nope, they were it. Other than that British guy he'd been drunk at. But the Doctor wasn't even human anyway, and Re-l was--well, there were extenuating circumstances.

The archangel dropped the readers onto the shelf with a clatter which implied they were taking more damage than they actually were and sauntered toward Re-l, leaning on the counter next to her. "But you don't need to worry about him," he said, snapping his fingers lazily at Aziraphale both to indicate him and to turn his slacks into a tartan kilt matching the awful bowtie he was already wearing. "Azzy here is the goodiest-two-shoes to ever did almost-fall."
brightblueeyeshadow: (obnoxious face)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-22 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
Re-l straightened up immediately, holding her back in the firm controlled stance that only a trained fighter could pull off. It gave her a couple of extra inches and made her look serious, both extremely useful at this juncture.

"I'll judge who I have to worry about," she said, but her mouth twitched once at the new outfit. Don't assume anything between us, please, even if it only applies to him," she added to Aziraphale. She needed to be clear about this. She'd let everyone get too close already.

Aziraphale was still downloading the books, and there was no point in even trying to unlock the door before she needed to leave. For the moment, Re-l was stuck.

"If you change my clothes I will break your finger," she said to Gabriel, just to make herself clear. Then she went back to glaring at everythiing.
trickntreats: (like a child without a care)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-22 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Gabriel grinned lazily up at Re-l. "Is that the best threat you can come up with? I rank it maybe two. I'm being generous 'cos I like you." The scrape of the e-reader on the counter made the archangel turn to Aziraphale, but Gabriel's grin only widened and he pointed at the other angel's face. "That, I will give an eight. Good show, bro. We'll corrupt you yet."

With a snap of his fingers the door-jamb expanded with a creak, just a little, until it fit too snugly around the door for it to actually open. (He'd have liked to shoved a case across the exit, because an actual physical action was more pointed, but having it slide a foot and then not reach the door would've been humiliating. At least this way neither of them were as likely to notice and be left wondering just what he'd done.)
brightblueeyeshadow: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-22 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
"My threats don't need to be flamboyant. You know I will actually carry it out."

She grabbed the reader and tucked it into an inside pocket of her coat.

"I'll leave immediately," she said to Aziraphale, nodding her thanks.

Re-l strode down the central aisle, her heels clicking viciously, and tried the door. Still locked, and not even wobbling in the lock. She took a very deep breath, closed her eyes, and reminded herself of every reason she had not to kill Gabriel. She had to be rational about this.

"Do you have a back door?" she asked loudly, not daring to turn around just yet. Her hands were clenched at her sides, the skin of her fingers totally white.
trickntreats: (i'll just hang out here and watch)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-22 08:48 am (UTC)(link)
"So-so," Gabriel judged, waggling his hand and still leaning on the counter. "You're not actually being specific with the threat, but, bro, you've got the intimidation shtick down pretty good. Not bad. I'll give it a five."

Despite his judgement, he didn't seem much fazed at all. In fact, he was still smirking, and lifted his eyebrows, just once, at Aziraphale in a 'what you gonna do?' sort of fashion.
brightblueeyeshadow: (gun)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-22 10:30 am (UTC)(link)
Re-l was being ignored, and that pushed her right past annoyed and into very angry. She walked back up the aisle, her eyes glinting, fisted her hands in Gabriel's shirt and lifted him a couple of inches off the ground. It wasn't a posture she could maintain indefinitely - she was strong but not that strong - but it would do.

"Open the door. Now."

She glared at him, her face inches away from his.
trickntreats: (Default)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-22 11:05 am (UTC)(link)
Any startle Gabriel may have felt at suddenly being yanked up was hidden behind a smirk and a wink. "Now that one was much better," he told her, his eyes glittering with amusement. "I'll give that one an eight. You've got the whole physical presence thing going."

Ordinarily, Gabriel's response to Aziraphale would have been similar. Not that the other angel's wrath was actually frightening, because come on, angel versus archangel, but it was still pretty impressive.

This wasn't ordinary. With a longsuffering sigh and a roll of his eyes Gabriel said, "Fiiiiine," and snapped his fingers on both hands, wrists crossed in front of him. The jamb loosened and the lock clicked back.
brightblueeyeshadow: (air)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-22 11:11 am (UTC)(link)
Re-l set him down gently and stood there. Her thoughts suddenly seemed slow, and rather stupid, but she couldn't understand why. She had been thinking? Something? And now she was standing here, which was good. Good? Why?

She waited for the feeling to fade, and it didn't, and she stood there.
trickntreats: (the waves keep pulling me in)

[personal profile] trickntreats 2012-05-22 11:41 am (UTC)(link)
Gabriel blinked and was vaguely surprised to find that, yes, Re-l had just put him down and he himself had reversed his tricks even though he'd had no intention of doing so until he'd annoyed both his companions into ... doing something he hadn't quite decided on yet.

So why had he done it?

Something cold clutched at his gut and he turned toward Aziraphale, no humour on his features at all. His amber eyes were intense as he looked at Aziraphale squarely and said with deadly quietness, "And what the Hell was that?"

He didn't really need an answer. He asked it anyway.
brightblueeyeshadow: (gun)

[personal profile] brightblueeyeshadow 2012-05-22 11:57 am (UTC)(link)
Re-l thoughts caught up to speed in an instant, and her mind did the necessary deductions.

This was worse than telekinesis. Worse than the whole soul thing. Mind control.

She swung herself across the counter, landed on her feet and slammed Aziraphale into the wall, pinning him with one arm held across his chest and shoulders. The other hand reached for the knife belted on her waist and pulled it out.

It was an action Gabriel should recognise, since she'd used it on him before.

"That," she said, "was the stupidest thing you ever did. Nobody touches my mind but me. Ever."

Her voice was totally controlled and like ice, radiating cold rage with every syllable.

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