caveofsapphires | suddenly my eyes are open [open]

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suddenly my eyes are open [open]

WHO: Gabriel (Sylvester Wilton) and [OPEN]
WHAT: Gabriel got taken in for a memory-modification. Now he's a little bit weirded out.
WHERE: Sleeping quarters, Bakery, Bar, Temple, streets in-between.
WHEN: Tuesday 10 to Saturday 21 April 2012.

This was one Hell of an elaborate prank. Except that Gabriel was starting to doubt that it was a prank, exactly. Dad wouldn't have thrown him into a place where the inhabitants drilled into his skull. Or experimented on him. Or ... did something Gabriel wasn't quite aware of but which must have happened, because going off to the clinic and then waking up in his quarters without knowing the in-between kind of indicated something happened in the in-between. All at once he remembered the 'dancing alien' prank he'd pulled and wondered if this was in any way similar. Maybe Lucifer had done it, except that Gabriel was fairly sure even Lucifer had no idea where archangels went after they died or how to capture them before they went there.

Maybe this was some kind of archangel's afterlife. If so, Gabriel's only hope was that Luci's turned out worse in the end.

With a groan Gabriel rubbed his temples, trying to wish away the ... it wasn't a throb, exactly. More like a hollow ache. He'd tried to snap it away, naturally, but that had only made the headache worse, so he'd stopped.

"Note to self," he told his reflection in the mirror. "This ain't a game anymore, and pushing the line results in ... in ... something. Just because you've already died apparently doesn't mean it can't happen again. I mean, look at the Winchesters."

With that pep-talk, he staggered to his feet and out the door.

The next five days were, in a word, weird. He still had no idea how to bake, but when he walked into the bakery on Tuesday he found himself automatically pulling out the ingredients for icing and had finished making a multi-tier wedding cake before he realised what he was doing. (Of course, then he had get rid of the excess icing. The cake wasn't actually saleable either, but Gabriel figured he deserved a reward for actually doing some baking and not having it completely burn.)

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning he discovered that powerless archangels in human bodies could, indeed, get sick from eating too much sugar. He made it to work--for a little while--he just didn't get much work done. (Instead he spent most of it looking green and slumped on a chair near the cash-register, with neither the appetite for sweets nor the energy to bake.)

On Thursday after work he went to the bar. If he could get sick, maybe he could get drunk too, and then he could get rid of this niggling uneasiness (fear) that Something Was Wrong. He succeeded in getting drunk quite well, and for a happily oblivious night completely forgot what the hell he was meant to be uneasy about, if anything.

He just didn't make it to work on Friday and spent the day in bed, groaning over the hangover, yelling at anyone who made too much noise and then going back to bed to groan some more.

On Saturday he found the Temple, a tiny little hole in the wall whose only two seats were cut into stone and whose altar sported a couple of thick candles. There was another worshipper, but he left when Gabriel told him to skedaddle, and then the archangel had a very unproductive one-sided conversation with the candles. Anyone passing by might have heard the final rather frustrated and faintly echoing refrain of, "Dad, if you can hear me, get me out of here!"

By Sunday morning something had settled in his mind and he finally became aware that he, in fact, had an extra memory that had been hiding by pretending it belonged there. A memory of baking a multi-tier wedding cake, colour-coordinated with the wedding party, with the mother-in-law hovering over his shoulder. The realisation it was there made him shiver.

He imagined it lurking and giggling, and named it Marie.

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"Probably," Gabriel said, and made a face. "If there's even a slight similarity, my 'family' here are completely screwed up." Wonderful; just what he needed, was another messed-up family.

He frowned and then shrugged. The evidence he'd been presented with was exasperating and weirdly ... nostalgic. Of all the things Gabriel had never done, it was go to college. Sure, he'd been a janitor on college grounds, but he'd never stooped to being a student. "A picture of graduating college with my chef's degree."

The archangel flashed his companion a smirk. "Ironic, eh? Bet they're wishing they'd given me something else."

"Mmm, yes, family is a strange thing, isn't it?" Many people had poor impressions of their families, really, so that this man did wasn't much of a surprise. The Doctor had to admit to some curiosity about it, but... well, perhaps he could pry into that another time.

He laughed cheerfully. "And now you'll have to get your degree all over again, won't you?" he teased, grinning to the 'chef'. He couldn't fathom having to pick up a profession he didn't have any knowledge of... Well, outside of how interesting it would be to learn something new. "I'm sure you'll do fine, hmm? Just try to keep most of your mischievousness out of it, won't you?"

Gabriel lifted his eyebrows and put his hand over his heart in utmost innocence. "Now where would be the fun in things if I did that?"

At least this way he got some perks out of it. Mostly in the form of icing and chocolate chips, but he was starting to work out a very good system of pretending to 'learn' to bake while not actually doing much at all. In the meantime, he actually did get something other than the rations. It wasn't a bad system, really. Except for the part where his stomach had boundaries.

"What did they stick you with?" he asked, giving the old man a critical eye. He looked like a professor or an old retired doctor. Of course, he could've owned a funeral home too; that would have been interesting. But also less likely.

The Doctor laughed. He liked this fellow. Certainly the most entertaining of those he'd met in this place, and he had access to delicious baked goods... Well, he assumed they were delicious. He'd have to determine the truth behind that when he had the chance to try that cake later.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm a professor and scientist, apparently." He gave a shrug. "I'm in the library for the moment, helping students and doing my own studies, making sure I know the limits of this society." It wouldn't do to unintentionally push the society ahead by a hundred years. Assuming what he knew really worked, at any rate. Not that he believed otherwise. "A lot of reading." Not something most here seemed to be interested in.

"I used to work in a college," Gabriel said thoughtfully, and then for the benefit of anyone listening added with smirk and a dismissive wave, "Did it my sleep, you know how it is. I was the janitor."

People underestimated the janitor. It was one of his favourite jobs when he was prowling campuses for arrogant idiots. Ah, those were the days. Of course, unfortunately for the Doctor, Gabriel was on that list of people uninterested in reading.

"I didn't spend much time in the library," he added almost in afterthought. "Let me watch the people."

One brow quirked as the Doctor gave his companion a curious look. "A janitor?" he inquired, more repeating than asking for confirmation. He couldn't imagine this fellow content to clean floors.

Ah, people watching. That made more sense, he supposed, though it also brought up further questions. "Just what were you watching them for, hmm?" he asked. "I doubt you were interested in their sense of fashion."

It was so easy to clean things when all it took was a snap of his fingers after-hours. That meant the rest of his time, when he wasn't spying on idiots, was spent watching TV, reading trashy magazines, plotting pranks, eating and having sex. What could be better?

"Oh, please." He snorted. "You wouldn't believe some of the fashions I've seen. But, no." His smile crept wickedly across his face and his fingers danced in the air. "I was in the business of, shall we say, alternate forms of justice."

"Ah." The comment on fashion went overlooked as the Doctor's musing took over. Justice. Suddenly he wasn't so sure he liked this fellow as much as he thought. Well, it wasn't as though he wasn't guilty of that, even if it could be argued he'd been saving lives, and not knowing the extent of this man's idea of 'justice', he couldn't really judge.

"No matter," he said, waving a hand to dismiss his own thoughts. "I suppose we'll all have to sort out some way to work together in order to sort this mess out, won't we?" Whether it be rebuilding, as the people in charge seemed to expect, or to get out of this place.

It was, admittedly, sometimes cruel, but usually only as far as it was deserved. A man who was lauded for publicly condemning infidelity and then went ahead and had sex, more than once, with his female students. A jerk who humiliated people around him for their alternate beliefs. The kinds of things which deserved a little slap, but no law would cover.

Mostly they survived. Sometimes. Maybe. And he'd kinda had to quit that job for the apocalypse.

"And it's one Hell of a mess they left behind," Gabriel murmured, looking to survey the street and realising with a start that he wasn't entirely sure where they were going. Not having a mental radar made it hard to remember he didn't have one until he tried to use it. He grimaced. "Uh, where were we headed again?"

That he had to agree with. A mess that none of them understood, and yet were expected to 'fix'. If he had been from this place, he'd be rather put off by that. Heck, even not being from the area, he was a little disgruntled about the lack of information - but it was certainly a curious mystery, if nothing else.

"Hmm?" The Doctor glanced around. "Oh, nowhere in particular. The living quarters are over that way, though." He motioned down the street to the west. He'd wandered the underground city so much in his first week, it would be quite the shock to him if he managed to get lost. "Have you visited all the other buildings here?" After a paused, he added, "Aside from the library."

"Oh, well done," Gabriel said, throwing him an amused look. "As it happens, I did go for a few strolls, but someone stole my internal radar and I keep forgetting to memorise the streets."

It was frustrating, every time he ran up against something he didn't have which he should have had, but this was a small thing he'd taken for granted--much like his bottomless stomach. He'd never thought about life without an internal map, without always knowing exactly where he was, and now not having it was one of the most irritating things he could think of.

"I've been tempted to submit to the lure and try my luck," he added, glancing at his companion keenly, "but then I remember that these are the people who sent us out to start work without remembering a thing about our jobs. What are the chances they were any good at keeping accurate and helpful records?"

A sort-of subtle hint, there. If there was anything the old man had found, that meant less that Gabriel had to look for.

"Perhaps a map of the place would be of use," the Doctor suggested. "Though you'd need one of those handheld devices, unless you were fortunate enough to get one drawn out for you." A data map would likely be of more use, if it were capable of tracking a path to one's destination, but some people weren't very adept with technology.

"Ah, well, I've yet to find anything on the disaster itself. There seems to be no mention outside of it having happened." And that was pretty obvious from the state of things. "The planet's history seems to be fairly detailed, however." Not that he'd vouch for its accuracy - if these people were keeping things from them, who's to say what had been altered or left out of the place's history? "Now, the science texts all seem to be fairly well put together, but I suspect those don't interest you much, do they?"

"Sure, it would be fantastic," Gabriel agreed with bright sarcasm. "It'd be an inferior model to what I'd have in my dreams, but we all have to put up with something, don't we?" It didn't matter to him if it was paper or not; he had a good learning curve when it came to technology. He'd had two thousand years to get used to the changes, after all.

"Nothing on the science of the Disaster?" he asked sardonically, but his expression was thoughtful. If they'd had time to prepare for after the Disaster was over, but there was no detailed information on it, then it just spoke of a cover up. It wasn't surprising, but it lent weight to the inevitable suspicions. "I can be interested, if they're relevant to my whim of the time. Tell me things."

About the science, about the history, about anything of interest or relevance.

Now that was curious, and made the Doctor wonder if this man were some sort of cyborg in his dream life. Or perhaps he still was, and simply hadn't been able to activate his abilities since waking up. Either way, it was rather interesting, and something worth keeping an eye on.

"Nothing at all, I'm afraid," he answered. "I'm still looking, hoping to find some scrap of knowledge, some tidbit buried in the rest of the information, but as of yet..." He shrugged, shaking his head. "It's most curious, don't you think?"

Things? Well. The Doctor had no idea what sort of 'things' this man would find interesting, but rambling was something he was good at. "I've only skimmed the history thus far. Basic things, such as the rise of civilization, technological advances, the building of their cities. Ah, the Diamond City seems to be the center of this society. People travelled to attend school or work there." He found himself wondering just how many cities fell in this disaster, how many people were lost, or if there were other bases such as this one about the planet... How many people would it take to repopulate an entire planet? "I believe whatever happened is the key to sorting all this out, but that may prove rather challenging. Unless, of course, the records simply never made it here, and were still out in the city..." As unlikely as that seemed, it was something.

"I do think," Gabriel agreed in a murmur, fingers rapping the side of his jaw. He didn't appear to be paying attention to his companion's monologue, gaze darting around the buildings while he got to work on that 'memorising his route' thing, but mentally he filed things away.

"So Diamond City is the Los Angeles of real-time?" he asked in amusement with a hand-gesture that implied an air-quote but wasn't actually. "We'll be lucky if they kept anything other than movie reels." He paused a moment and then snapped his fingers. "On second thought, I'd call that 'luck'. I'm dying for some decent entertainment around here."

That earned him a soft chuckle. People did love their entertainment, and that was certainly not something speific to humans. "I suppose, in a manner of speaking. Not so much glitter and glamour as Los Angeles, though I'm sure they have their entertainment." The Doctor tilted his head towards his companion with a grin. "Messing about in the kitchen not amusement enough for you? There's always the bar. Ah, fairly quiet place, however. Perhaps not as entertaining as you'd like."

"Hrmph. Might have to fix that." The glitter and glamour was half the fun, mostly because it usually made people look utterly ridiculous. And when it didn't, well, it sometimes actually looked good.

He smirked back. "Needs a couple of ladies dancing to their poles before I'll start classing it as entertainment without my being there to create it for myself." He shrugged. "Or at least a pool table or dartboard would be nice."

Well, now he had at least some idea of what this man thought was entertaining. Definitely a mischief maker, the Doctor figured. "Oh, I'm sure there'll be better out in the city, hmm?" He chuckled. There had to be something, though whether or not it'd be open with the smaller population, he couldn't say. "You may have to go searching for it, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere."

"If it's even half like Los Angeles, there will be," Gabriel assured him with a smirk and a gleam in his eye. "Luckily, I'm very good at being on both sides of hide and seek."

Which made him a master at it. He knew just how to hide and he knew just how to seek. Of course, he had a bit of a handicap right now, but in some fashion--at least as far as the circumstances they were referring to--that would only make it more fun instead of less, as with most of his time here.

"Hide and seek?" the Doctor repeated, sounding vaguely incredulous. He hadn't had much time for silly child's games in so very long, and to picture this man playing them... Well, no, it was easy to picture, and made him chuckle and give his head a gentle shake. "Then I imagine the entertainment you seek won't be able to hide long, will it? Do try not to get into too much trouble." Likely advice that would go unheeded, but it was worth saying.

"Don't knock it too quickly," Gabriel admonished, the smirk lingering. "There's a lot of different ways you can play it to make it palatable to adults."

Often it including the caveat that the other player didn't know it was hide-and-seek, but that's what made it fun. Hunters were especially good for it. He looked innocent. "Trouble? Me?" The smirk came back. "Always."

"Oh, most of my experiences with the 'game' were on the hiding side of things, and not for enjoyment." After a paused, the Doctor added, "From my dream, you see. A lot of running and hiding was involved." A part of him couldn't wait to leave this place, if only so he wouldn't have to worry about how he spoke of his past. "I suppose that's the nature of dreams," he mused. "They can't always be pleasant, can they?"

The rest made him simply shake his head with a chuckle, clearly amused.

"There's an answer to that," Gabriel told him. "Become the hunter instead. You can even do it from the position of the mouse! It's just a matter of setting up the circumstances." The last word was accompanied with a waggle of his fingers in the air.

Then he waved with a roll of his eyes, submitting to the need to qualify their words. "Theoretically, of course."

The Doctor smirked. "Yes, of course." He opted not to continue down that thread of conversation, not wanting to push the limits too far. Perhaps another time. Always another time. He frowned, and shook his head.

"Well," he uttered, glancing around. They'd arrived at the living quarters, and the Doctor smiled pleasantly to Gabriel. "I suppose I could offer you a cup of tea. It's fairly easy on the stomach. Unless, of course, you've better things to do than amuse an old man for the evening."

"Only if the old man's willing to amuse me back," Gabriel said at once. Given that his alternatives were to go back to work or to find his own amusement from somewhere else, the offer was worth taking up.

"Never actually got your name," he added idly a moment later, looking around. "Which room's yours?"

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oops I flaked and lost this amongst the spam :( sorry

np! also i think i meant '*unlike* most of his time here'

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np! also i think i meant 'unlike most of his time here'