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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"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."

"Human. Except for the colour."

Then Crowley raised an eyebrow. He couldn't handle so much hyperbole when he was drunk. Sobering up with a shudder, he willed the alcohol out of his system and sat up straighter.

"However 'awesome' they look, I think I'll stick with the glasses. There are enough snakes around here and I don't want to distract anyone in class."

He wasn't about to mention the other reason he wore sunglasses.

"...'kay." A tad reluctantly, because he liked Crowley's eyes, damnit, Ryuuji proferred the sunglasses to Crowley, folded up on the palm of his hand. "Plus, you look cool when you wear sunglasses - everyone wouldn't recognize you without them, just like people don't recognize Nightwing without his spandex and eye mask!"

"I always look cool. But they are distinctive. Especially when I wear them at night with a very good suit."

He took his glasses back, unfolded them, and slid them comfortably back onto his nose with no audible sound of relief.

"I'm sure I needn't remind you that discussing this with anyone would be a really bad idea..."

With a roll of his eyes, Ryuuji pouted at Crowley, narrowing his own eyes a little, "You don't. Nobody ever does. And everybody needs to learn that so that they'll stop telling me to keep stuff secret when I'd do that anyway."

Nod, nod and slight dizziness at nodding when having drunk quite a bit already.

"I did say that I knew that I didn't have to remind you."

Crowley rested his head on his hand and looked askance at Ryuuji, wondering how drunk the other was.

"So what's the deal with the dragons anyway?"

"Dragons. Right!" Ryuuji seemed to instantly perk up, gesturing excitedly with one hand for no reason in particular except it seemed the thing to do. Cheeks a little flushed (the problem with those refilling, changing drinks was that you couldn't tell how much you'd drunk), he caught Crowley's gaze as best as he could and told him solemnly, in a tone bordering on reverential, "Dragons are awesome. All beautiful and deadly and sleek and powerful. And they've got those tails, see, and when you're on the ground, you can whack people with those tails and then you breathe on them and then WHOOSH! They're ashes. So cool. I love it."

Green eyes glittering excitedly, he went on, "And the sight, man, the sight! You can see anything small and moving like crazy - I bet even birds don't have it that good, because you can see heat too, not just shapes and silhouettes. And when you're in the air, and flying, and you can see everything and you've got scales like armor, it's- it feels like being invincible. Like you're so high, nobody can ever bring you down, nobody can ever hurt you. That even if they clip your wings and burn you, you'll fall and crash-land in the way you want."

With a nod, Ryuuji went on firmly, "'s why I hate brooms. Brooms are tiny and flimsy and you feel like they'll crash because you're not really the one controlling them - you didn't make them, and anyone can sneak jinxes onto them. Dragons are so much cooler. Brooms are just brooms. Sticks. The most you could diguise one as would be a spear or something. Dragons can be human, and they can walk right in the middle of you, and they smell like smoke and ashes unless they wear perfume or cologne - which most of them are smart enough to do - and they fly against the moon like death descending and they walk on the earth as if they own it."

Apparently getting Ryuuji even a little drunk meant he'd be both talkative and inclined towards being poetic. Then again, Japanese people were genetically less able to handle alcohol, so it didn't really take much for him to get to the expansive stage of intoxication since that was close to his normal mood anyway.

KARAOKE!

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