hh_mirror | KARAOKE!

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KARAOKE!

((Sorry about the delay but it took me a while to decide how to play this. If you think it's unrealistic for your character to have been drunk enough/influenced by Ryuuji, you don't have to play along. Otherwise, pick any song you think your char would have sung, upload it to yousendit, then comment with a link. Easy way to share musical tastes! And if your char was drunk enough, pick a song they'd never normally sing and upload that. XD))

Over the course of the evening, everyone had been roped into trying out the karaoke machine at one point or another. Or trying it out several times, since Ryuuji hadn't been quite sure if he'd caught everyone and had compensated for that by pushing anyone he caught onto the stage and insisting that they serenade the pub.

For himself, he'd ended up performing once to break the ice, once for the hell of it and once near the end of the evening to prove he was still sober. And the fact that he thought that would prove he was sober probably testified to the fact that he was more than a little intoxicated by that point.

Songs were:

Every Me and Every You - Placebo.

The Calender Hung Itself - Bright Eyes.

Irresponsible - Voltaire.

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"Uh..." Considering that seriously, Ryuuji gave a half shrug, "Some. Not all that much. I'm amused you refer to God as male and the metraton refers to God as female. I know he's classically male, and a lot of wars get fought in his name and he supposedly invented the earth and everything..."

"He is genderless and all powerful so he can appear to anyone in any form He likes. If He wants to be a woman for a while, that's His business. I always say Him because it's easier and I don't say His name, so don't expect it."

Crowley took rather larger sips of his wine then he normally would and continued.

"All right. Here's the condensed version of the story. In the beginning of everything there was Him and nothing else. Not even space or time for Him to exist in. Then he created the angels. Nine choirs in three tiers. At first, they existed only to praise Him, their Creator. But although there was no time yet, they knew that at some point they would be needed for something else and they worked towards those ends, trusting His plan.

"Now, He had a second-in-command who was the Morningstar, you know him as Lucifer. And things were fine for a while, though there was no while for them to be fine in. I won't keep saying that, just keep it in mind. It's hard to explain non-temporality in English. Anyway, at some point, the Morningstar learned of His plans for the creation of the universe. Lucifer's pride told him that he could rule such a creation better than Him, so he gathered followers, nearly a third of all the angels, and rebelled against the Lord.

"There was a War, the likes of which you could not conceive and many angels were slain. In the end, however, the Archangel Michael, the Commander of the Host, and a real jackass by the way, overpowered the Morningstar and threw him down. As punishment for his sins of Pride, the Morningstar was cut off entirely from the Presence and made to Fall into a new realm. This he called Hell and he became its ruler the way he wanted to rule Heaven."

Crowley finished his fourth, sixth, ninth? glass of wine and poured himself another. He really hated talking about this part.

"Every living thing feels the Presence. I know that you're an atheist, but you feel it, too, and would only miss it if it were gone. Since it was nearly everything that makes up an angel, most of those who lost it went insane or became really cruel and twisted. They started to become known as demons.

"Then He created Light, Time, the Universe, the Earth, Water, Life, and Humans. He created a Man and Woman and put them in the Garden of Eden where He told them they could eat of any tree but one: the tree of knowledge. Well, Lucifer, for various reasons, formed for me a mortal serpent body (I suspect it was easier than a human one...) and sent me to the Garden with an order to make some trouble. Since there was only one rule, the only trouble I could make was to get them to break it. Eve was dissatisfied with her idiot husband Adam, but he was the man and the first so he was in charge. But I convinced her that if she ate the apple from the tree of knowledge that she would be the one in charge. She did and got instant awareness of right and wrong and free will to go along with it.

"Suddenly with free will, the humans could choose whether they wanted to be good and follow Him or to be evil, wallowing in sin for their own personal gain. And somehow, I never did quite understand this part, but there was some kind of Agreement that said that His followers would return to Heaven when they died and those who chose evil would be punished and sent to Hell. It doesn't seem like a fair choice to me if those are the consequences, but He has never been fair, no matter what anyone says."

Trying very hard not to sound bitter, Crowley tried to wrap up his argument.

"So here's my point. There is nothing that can exist that He didn't create, right? Because He is omnipotent. So if He didn't create other dimensions, and we would know if He did 'cause we were there, then they don't exist. So, where then do you people come from? I don't know. Maybe He wants you all to just think you're from another dimension. Maybe He wants me to think you exist when you really don't. Second guessing Him is impossible and His plan is ineffable, so I don't worry about it."

Crowley sat back, muttering something about solitare. "I hope that answers your question, kid."

I think I need to be more drunk to understand that. Ryuuji focused on absorbing everything Crowley said, analysing it and looking for the weak points. Right. Okay. Put aside the native skepticism. Focus on what the demon is saying as if it actually makes sense. Accept - for the sake of argument - that Crowley's tale makes sense for his world.

"Okay. I can get your point, but why does God have to be omnipotent for everything? He can be omnipotent for this universe alone, and have all the power over everything he created without having any power in other dimensions. I mean, it's the box argument, isn't it? A box inside a box inside a box inside a box, and you never can tell that there are more boxes beyond the one that you're trapped in."

Please tell me I'm sober enough to argue metaphysics.

Crowley shook his head. "That's not what omnipotent means. Omnipotent means having unlimited or universal power and authority. If there were," he waved a hand, "other dimentions out there, worlds, universes, that He didn't create and didn't control, then He wouldn't truly be omnipotent and if He weren't then there'd be no point to anything."

He could feel the alcohol kicking in and was glad of it. When one was discussing the potential redundency of one's entire existence, alcohol was needed to cushion the shocks.

"Yeah, that's the thing! Universal. So he can be completely powerful over all of your universe, but not the other universes." Ryuuji pointed out enthusiastically, treating this as an abtract problem mostly because otherwise it would be too weird to argue over something he knew was true, when Crowley apparently knew the opposite was true.

Hm. His drink was blue now. And fizzy. With little gold bubbles.

Oh well. With a shrug, Ryuuji knocked back a gulp of it, not bothering to wonder whose idea it had been to get magically changing drinks anyway.

Crowley shook his head. "Nah, we're getting caught up in semantics. I knew this would happen. Universal means everything, right? Ev-ry-thing. If he's not all powerful over all of Creation, then the battle between good and evil and by extension, my existence, is entirely pointless. So forgive me if I choose to believe that other dimensions don't exist. You don't have any proof that they do, anyway."

"No proof besides I come from one of them. And I've seen other gods." Ryuuji pointed out, then took another gulp of his drink - urgh, it was bubble tea! Alcoholic bubble tea.

Making a face, he tried to focus, and then went on, "Besides. Who says he's omnipotent anyway besides himself?"

"Or you think you do. These other people who call themselves gods, like our new Astronomy Professor, are powerful, yeah, but not like Him. I've been in His Presence, I watched Him work. It's so completely ineffable that even if you knew angel language I couldn't explain it. You just know."

Crowley knew he was getting tipsy now, because even though he couldn't find words for concepts that were ultimately indescribable, he was trying anyway.

"You've met Adam, right? That kid is omnipotent, too, but he mostly represses it, thank... him. He could know everything, do everything, be everything, but then the world would end, so that's not so good. Sometimesss when he looks at you, it's like he can see everything you've ever done written on your soul in letters ten feet high. It's a good thing he's not judgmental..."

...I hope he never looks at me like that. Was the first thought to spring into Ryuuji's head, oddly enough, but he brushed that off in favor of continuing to listen. Head canted to a side, Ryuuji shrugged and looked down at his drink, "You're right that I've never met your god, so I don't know what it's like to be around him. I've met Egyptian gods, in my home world though, and I know what it's like to dimension-hop. And what about DEATH? In your mythology - sorry, religion - he's an angel, isn't he? Whereas he obviously isn't an angel here."

"I've met Egyptian and Norse gods," said Crowley thinking of Horus and Odin, "and any number of anthropomorphic personifications, but they're not true gods. They were all created in the minds of men and are sustained by man's belief in them. They have human failings. He is the only one who existed before mankind, who created mankind, and by extension, the other gods."

Crowley drank the last mouthful of his glass of wine. His drink wasn't changing because he didn't expect it to. He did, however, expect it to refill itself and it did.

"Death is a special case. He's not an angel, he's a horseman - the first and greatest of the four. Ask him about it if you like."

"But they all say that they created mankind. And if he created you, and he was created in the minds of man, then wouldn't you believe whatever he says because you were created by him to believe what you're meant to?" Ryuuji wondered if that made sense. He hoped it did. Just in case, he passed up on taking another gulp of his drink and made a mental note to try to talk to Death.

"The ones I know never said that. The stories about them, written by men, say that they created mankind, but the gods themselves know better."

Crowley took a second to try and follow the second statement. He frowned in concentration.

"Couldn't you say the exact same thing about yourself? Couldn't anyone? That's why trying to figure it out is so pointlessss. We're all just deuces in a giant game of solitare, so we believe what we need to and get through the day."

Cue a shrug from Ryuuji, and a slight tilt of his head, "Maybe so, but still, the alternative dimension thing bugs me. Like Cthulhu. Do you really and truly believe that your god created him? And if he wasn't created by your god, then how do you explain his existence? It works out fine for me since I know the multiverse exists, even if I don't believe in gods as a matter of principle, but by your method, he's inexplicable."

Crowley leaned forward. "Tell me sssomething, Ryuu... kid. Do you believe in dinosssaurs?"

"...Ryuuji works fine." Ryuuji paused, mulling that question over, then shrugged. "Not sure - I've had gods tell me that they just put the skeletons down to test humans, but that seems kind of croddy of them. It's always struck me more as something that happened, and people tried to explain away later if it didn't fit in with their belief system."

Cue a head tilt, Ryuuji's drink starting to steam red smoke. "Why?

Crowley shook his head. "Couldn't say it...

"I watched Him do it. Put all those giant bonesss in the ground. He was laughing about it. Great big practical joke."

He was beyond tipsy now and his drunken hissing was getting significantly more pronounced.

"Any ssscientist, any one, will tell you that thisss planet is four and a half billion years old. Basssed on calculationsss and whatnot. But I know, I know, that it's just over sssix thousand. I know 'cause I've lived every blesssed one of them. Why does He want them to think it's older than it really is? Who the fuck knowsss? That's what I say about sssquid boy, too. It just doesssn't matter when you get right down to it."

"It matters to me though, if you're going to say that my home doesn't exist, or that other dimensions don't, because for me, that's like saying oxygen doesn't exist." Ryuuji pointed out, wondering if Crowley was sober enough to get the point.

Probably not.

If you can't beat them, join them. Cue Ryuuji taking a sip of his purple-and-yellow layered drink, which tasted oddly like grapes with cheese.

"Dunno why. I wouldn't care if you sssaid my home doesn't exist, 'cause I know it doesss. Ever'body knowsss what they know and that'sss all."

Crowley waved a hand expansively.

"It's all philosssophy. Like you sssaid about oxygen. I don't need it. Doesss that mean it doesn't exissst to me? It's like the tree in the foressst makin' sssoundsss."

He peered at Ryuuji, trying to figure out what he was saying. "Your dimensssion doesn't exissst to me. But I ssstill like you okay. After thousandsss and thousandsss of years, you learn to live with contradictionsss."

...Okay, Ryuuji could deal with that. Even if he didn't exist - or the dimension he didn't come from didn't exist and he therefore didn't exist - Crowley still liked him, and that was good enough, right?

"The poor tree must get sick of being argued over." Tacit agreement to let the subject drop, Ryuuji amused enough at being peered up drunkenly that he reached up for Crowley's sunglasses, careful to keep his motions slow enough to make it clear it wasn't an attack. "Can I take those off? I want to see why you keep your eyes hidden all the time."

"That'sss rather persssonal," said Crowley, but he made no move to stop Ryuuji.

"Nobody's watching except me." Ryuuji took that for assent, carefully capturing the side legs of the frames between the index and thumb finger of each hand, then pressing up with the thumb to slide the sticks away from Crowley's ears. Slowly drawing them off, he tilted his head at the other, vivid green eyes intense with curiosity.

Crowley's yellow gold eyes shone, reflective even in the dim light of the bar, and his vertical slit pupils contracted to a thin black line. Despite the fact that he was drunk, they were focused intensely on Ryuuji.

"Ssso? What you expected?"

"Pretty!" Ryuuji sounded as delighted as a child with a new toy, a sudden, bright grin curving his lips upwards. Crowley's eyes reminded him of the dragons, especially a black one with eyes of the same gold as she had guarded (her wings were like the night when she soared into the summer sky, her breath held the same heat as the fires of Hell), and Ryuuji thought the only way that Crowley's eyes could have been cooler would have been if they'd been green instead.

Obviously thrilled, his own eyes still what passed for normal (the pupils were smaller than usual for most humans but Ryuuji's father always said that was a sign of rigid self-control), and Ryuuji didn't put the sunglasses back as he told Crowley, "Your eyes are cool. All golden and shiny and slit-pupilled, like my-"

He faltered for a moment, and then glanced around the pub before going on, "Like my kitten's." Pause. "Or like dragon eyes. Proper dragons, not the type they have here. The sentient kind."

"Or a sssnake's. Which is what they are. Can't sssay most people feel the sssame about them as you do. Gave me no end of trouble before sunglassses were invented. Alwaysss gave me headachesss to make them look normal and it never lasssted long."

Crowley gave a rare blink, feeling exposed without his glasses on.

"They were grey once. A very long time ago..."

"...Did they look like snake eyes then as well, or human eyes?" Ryuuji kept looking into the other's eyes, fascinated by the golden shine of them. The light seemed to slide off them, slipping off with sparks, and the slim black lines of Crowley's pupils were like prison bars to cage his thoughts.

"And the good thing about Hogwarts is that most people look different anyway, so I doubt anyone would care if your eyes are snake eyes or not. Especially not when they look so very awesome, all deadly and dangerous and treasure-golden."

KARAOKE!

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