[OPEN]

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Who: AJ Crowley and YOU
Where: Deux Lux
When: December 30th
Rating: PG13
Summary: Crowley is semi-enjoying a drink by himself, but probably wouldn't mind company.
The Story:

--

[Well... nearly the new year, again. Time is a mite harder to keep track of here, but he feels it coming even without the festive fuck-ups that the place always visits upon them.

He's in the bar, half way down a bottle of scotch and showing few ill effects for it. An ash tray sits at his elbow, with four stubbed-out cigarettes already died to cold ashes while he pulls on a fifth, adding a faint cloud of tobacco smoke to the air around him.

It's late, but that doesn't stop people from finding their way here. Crowley's pouring a drink out when he catches the eye of someone close by him, and he tops his glass off before offering the bottle out.]

Evening. [Or is it morning? It could be, for how long he's been in here.] It's a good one. Our resident doctor has decent taste.

Comments

[screwedontight]

[For Seth what he wears is casual. A white button down shirt, sleeves rolled to his forearms, a black vest and matching trousers. He rather looks like a waiter, which fits given he's coming in to do a turn at the bar.

It started after Lucifer left, and now it's become just part of what he does on a daily basis. So when Crowley offers the drink, he grins and picks it up, downing it.]

Better hope that Maze or I do the closet requests. I'm not sure Chloe knows top shelf from well.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

You look like a waiter. [Crowley points out blandly after giving Seth a quick up-down look over the tops of his sunglasses. He nudges them back up, huffing a breath out through his nose.]

No offence to Maze, but I wouldn't trust her to pour me a drink if she was the last person here to do it. [In truth, he actually brought his own. It's probably breaching etiquette, but when was the last time he cared about that?]

You, sure, maybe. I had Chloe down as more of a white wine spritzer kind of girl.

[screwedontight]

Yep. Kind of how you dress when you're helping friends run a bar. I mean, I kept getting drinks spilled on the jackets, so figured I'd go without them.

[He blinks at that, arching a brow.]

Is this because of what she is and all? You guys like at war or something?

[He laughs at that.] You called it in one.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

At war? Don't be stupid. We did that once and it was enough. [He props his chin up on one hand.] Besides. Maze isn't the same kind of demon.

[That is, if he's remembering what Lucifer told him correctly. She was made later, she wasn't around for the kinds of things Crowley saw back then.]

But she's another demon, and smart demons don't trust other demons.

[screwedontight]

Given I didn't believe in God before this place, it's not entirely stupid to wonder.

[He arches a brow.]

I'll bite. What's the difference?

[It's just easier to ask than assume in things he's never truly believed in, but now accepts.]

I can get that though. That is a rule I know, like not trusting other criminals. Got it.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

She's originally from Downstairs. I'm not.

[He doesn't allude to the fact he used to be an angel very often, but there it is. Crowley shrugs one shoulder.]

And sure, if you want to put it in a way you'll understand. Something like that. Let's just say there are a few faces from back home that I wouldn't be thrilled about seeing.

[screwedontight]

Oh. Oh!

[Seth's upbringing wasn't as encompassing of religious doctrine, but that makes sense.

And makes him stare at Crowley for a moment before shrugging. Sure, it changes a bit about what Crowley is, but it doesn't change anything to Seth about their friendship.]

Well, Maze isn't around this afternoon, so you're drink will all be coming from me. Who I think you at least trust to pour you a drink. Maybe.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Maybe.

[He tilts his glass towards Seth and smirks, before he takes a sip and exhales a soft sound of contentment around the burn through his chest.]

You should join me. If someone complains, tell them the devil made you do it.

[screwedontight]

[He works in a club created by one devil, and one of those he would say unequivocally is his friend and someone he would risk life and limb for is another. Seth would say he's keeping good company.]

Well, with that excuse... [He pulls up another glass, pouring himself one and topping off Crowley's.] Do you know the closets in this place have been set up to provide some top shelf things I've never heard of. I didn't even you could do that. You just open the door, and the boxes are just sitting there.

[beautifullies]

[ Claire isn't sure what day it is. Honestly, she doesn't even know what time of day it is. She normally wouldn't even find herself in this particular bar but she had to walk, had to get out of her room even if for just a few minutes.

Somehow, she'd wound up here and she takes the bottle from Crowley, looking down at it before drinking straight from it and handing it back. ]

I'd like to think I know my whiskey. My husband might divorce me, otherwise.

[ Being a Scot, and all. Whiskey might as well be his blood. ]

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Over something so trivial? [Crowley replies, lightly taunting her with his response as he takes the bottle back. He has no issue, it seems, with the fact she drank straight from the bottle as he proceeds to do the same before setting it down on the bar.

No, not trivial. He knows how... important things like this are to Claire. Humans are so strange, and no stranger than when it comes to their quirks.]

I didn't think I'd see you in here. Taking a moment from the clinic?

[beautifullies]

Not really. [ regarding the idea that he'd really leave her.

She takes the whiskey again, wincing a the way it burns before pushing it back again. She can't get drunk, Bree needs her. But at his question, Claire lets out a shaky breath. ]

Something like that. I didn't even realize I'd come here. I needed to take a walk and wound up here.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

And right into my delightful company. [The demon drawls, resting his chin lightly on one curled had as he watches her drink. She can take more than that, he's sure, but he doesn't know yet that she's being careful.]

Have a seat, I'm sure there's another bottle in this place somewhere.

[beautifullies]

[ She does sit for now, a need to catch her breath and think, to parse out her thoughts. ]

I don't need more. I just need to be somewhere other than my room for a little while.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Mm, well, here's as good a place as any.

[He pours himself out another measure but doesn't drink it, just idly passes the glass between his hands along the bar top.]

Something's bothering you.

[beautifullies]

[ Claire considers being blunt and honest, considers dancing around the truth of things, gradually getting there. ]

I murdered the man who tortured my husband and daughter.

[ Straight to the point, then. ]

He arrived with the influx of people and took Brianna.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

[Crowley opens his mouth, then closes it again. 'Oh' seems like a poor response to such a thing, and he decides against it. Instead, he frowns, and certainly does not look happy with the news.]

How charming. [He mutters.] And for nothing good.

[beautifullies]

No.

[ She does take another shot of whiskey but tells herself that's it, pushing the bottle away. ]

I'd never heard my daughter scream before.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

[The top of the demon's jaw tenses briefly. For a creature who is reputed to be so evil, he never does a very good job in delighting in the wickedness of others.]

... I would have helped you, if you'd asked.

[beautifullies]

There wasn't time to ask. I know it sounds silly in hindsight, but it all happened so quickly.

[ Claire lets out a soft breath and rubs her forehead. ]

That's all I have to say for myself. It wasn't a slight to you that I didn't pull you into it. All I could see was the man who beat my husband, beating my daughter. There wasn't time for anything else other than to get to her.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Oh, I'm not offended.

[He says, though his posture suggests he might be just a tiny bit offended. Crowley isn't about to admit the level to which he has come to care about Claire's well-being out loud, but he's sure she has her ways of noticing.]

He's gone, then?

[beautifullies]

He is. When the majority of people disappeared, so did he.

[ But. ]

I don't know if he came back from the dead before he left.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

You don't know?

[Squint!]

I'd expect you were keeping an eye on him after all that.

[beautifullies]

I was a bit preoccupied tending to my tortured daughter.

[ Said seriously and not sarcastically. ]

By the time I had the presence of mind to verify anything, he was gone. Of course, I checked thoroughly. He isn't listed anymore in our devices.

[selfworthbitches]

We got a doc prescribing whiskey?

[She takes a swig straight from the bottle because she's a classy fucking bitch.]

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

I'd use the term recommending. [He replies with slightly raised eyebrows, but there's no comment made on her unique level of 'class'.]

And she isn't wrong. It's always nice to find a woman who knows her whiskey.

[selfworthbitches]

On that, we can agree.

[Maze takes a moment to taste the whiskey, considering it, then hands the bottle back.]

Not bad. Who is this woman?

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Claire Fraser.

[Surely Maze knows of her? But perhaps didn't expect her to be the one recommending whiskey to demons. At least Crowley is intoxicated enough to not really mind the company.]

She's a whiskey snob. Who would have thought it?

[selfworthbitches]

Not me. She seems so prissy.

[Maze hasn't really talked to Claire and has no actual reason to think that, honestly. She just makes assumptions sometimes.]

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Hah! Don't let the dresses and the hair fool you. Claire's great company.

[And that is not a compliment that Crowley gives lightly.]

Good sense of humour, too. For a human.

[selfworthbitches]

That's a low bar. Humans are notoriously terrible at humor.

[No one ever gets her funny evisceration jokes.]

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

[Crowley laughs appreciatively, though with a suddenness that clearly surprises him. He looks at Maze as if seeing her for the first time, and smirks.]

Well. And here was me thinking you didn't know how to make a joke. I'm impressed.

[selfworthbitches]

Why would you think that? [She scowls and tosses back another gulp of whiskey.] Is it cause I'm hot? Cause you can be both.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

[He gives her a long look, as if appraising her. Generally, as a demon, he doesn't give much thought to the aethetics of attractiveness.]

... You're not bad, I suppose.

[selfworthbitches]

[She laughs because she is well aware of how much of an understatement that is. Maze has plenty of places where she doubts herself, but here? Isn’t one of them.]

You’re not answering the question.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

[Far be it from Crowley to say someone could use a little humility.]

No, it's because you're a demon. Where I'm from, 'funny' isn't a defining trait of my kind.

[selfworthbitches]

Hell must get pretty dull. [She takes another sip of her drink.] Wouldn't call it a defining characteristic for my coworkers either. Dunno if we've got any defining characteristics besides enjoying pain.

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

Mm. Probably. I haven't been back there in thousands of years.

[Has his reasons for that, too. Namely that Earth is just more fun.]

But look at that, something we have in common. All of my coworkers are incomprehensibly dull as well. Cheers.