rainbowlounge | The Villa Is Open

Zephyr had a plan. "We are gonna make you the best electric milkshake that ever was!"

"Or will be!" Pip joined in, clapping her hands over her head as she danced along before him and Roa and generally got in the way of where they were trying to walk.

This gave Zephyr plenty of excuse to pause at the end of the hall and make himself a sweeping gesture. "In the historya... ah..." one that should have ended with him banging his hand on the wall.

Except for the part where the applicable wall had disappeared and not in the usual behold the busted drywall kind of way. It was just gone. Likewise, the hallway and the entirety of Sky Plaza.

Zephyr stood on some low, sweeping stone steps. That happened to be outside, while just a moment before been /inside/ and headed to the kitchen. "OK, what the hell?"

Roa took in the sudden sky all golden up the flanks of the villa before them and held her finger to her lips in curiosity. "I don't know, actually." Then, she attempted to walk down the way they had come. This got her over the steps and almost to the spray from the fountain in the drive before it became quite apparent merely turning around wasn't going to accomplish much besides dampening her shoes. Back up she went. "This *looks* like where they held the last Court of the Manor."

"You dunno?" his next sound was an odd one, not a moan and not a laugh, and awfully feline besides. "Yeah, that's not freakin me out or nothin. Dun you know everythin?"

"Zephyyyr. Same to you."

"You guys," interjected Pip, her bare toes rapping on the stone. "Think this's kinda the same thing happened to Seb."

"Hm?" Zephyr craned himself her way, and their hands tangled together, wires all a-flash.

"Mm!"

"Mnhn."

"Nnn~."

"Well, I like your theory so far," Roa nodded. Mostly, she wasn't being silly right back at their latest ridiculous display. Mostly. "Happened to Siebenkas...?"

"Yeah, he had this dream," the elder of the two evokers almost began to explain, digits working.

Whatever he meant to coax out of the recollections between them, Pip took over, swaying as she did. "He thinks was a dream, but is totally notta dream. I know. I touched him thinkin about it an it was all wrong fora dream. Still didn't make any sense, but not the same kinda way dreams do."

"Also, Seb never dreams he's nekkid. Fun fact."

("So useful, too," Roa remarked, quite to herself.)

"But, he walked outta his bathroom an alla a sudden, he was in this bar in Old New York an there were all these other people an he was almost kinda sorta mebbe flirtin with this mob boss lady over gin an tonic and then there was this real cute muddy guy. Seb didn't think he was so cute, but I did. He got way more distracted by the other lady evoked with her eyes and the booze was good an there were pretty blond polyamourous peeps bonkin in the restroom an... an... an..."

Her not so little description might have gone on another few hours, except that Zephyr reached around with his unoccupied hand and tickled her. The way they'd tangled up together, she must have known it was coming.

Which left Roa to conclude Pip wanted tickled more than she wanted to discuss any washroom adventures. "On one hand, that sounds very much like a dream to me. On the other, if there's some sort of precedent for people in our manor suddenly disobeying all known laws of physics. And you're not playing some sort of elaborate prank."

"Hey! I had my heart set on givin you your first electric milkshake an that's not somethin I'd go back on for any money." Next thing she did know with any certainty, Zephyr had play staggered over, clutching at his shirt, "'m so disappointed it /huuurts/."

"Well, you can make it up to me when the universe goes back to normal."

Grin for the time being, too.

"It is going to go back to normal?"

"Did last time. 's why we still gotta Seb an notta portal to someplace called Dan's," said Pip.

"Alright, so why don't we...?"

"Make the besta it?"

"Yes!" Roa swung from Zephyr's grasp. He only then reached for her, trying to find that place in her moments where the best meant [concrete] he could play after and with her. As it was, he missed her as she skipped the villa steps instead, swirling her skirt in her hands and calling back after: "We're going to get company, right?"

"Woul, that'd be nice, but if not," he shrugged. "We get blitzed an watch the stars come out." A quick little sigh and a pop of his shoulder after, he followed.

Pip watched the space in the sky where the clouds should have been. The end of her nose twitched. "We're so gettin company. Can smell it, almost. Somethin's zactly not right out there." Laughing then, she blew past them both and straight through the doors.

Stuff you actually need to know available in this direction:
http://rainbowlounge.dreamwidth.org/18653.html

Have fun!

ETA: This post has not been up thirty-six hours and we officially have more than 500 comments. SO I SUPPOSE THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL AMMIRITE? XD

ETA II: I am really, really touched that everyone wants to take care of the deceased fellow in the pool. I'm sure he appreciates it (he didn't even have a name in the story where he first appeared ;_;). But, alas, there was only one of him and he's currently being handled. He may be installed in a bedroom shortly, and should that happen, I will give him his own thread for poking purposes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Considering?" Zach asked after an appropriate amount of time. "It is strange, I agree."

"Considering, ah--my--workplace," he said, awkwardly. "It's very, uh, heavily guarded."

That sounded convincing, right?

Oh, this guy was a bad liar.

"I'm sorry, you didn't say what you do," Zach said with a polite little smile that hid her urge to grin as he asked.

"I--um, oversee the management of--a large corporation," Gabriel said, and tried not to wince. When was the last time he'd had to come up with a lie to explain his presence to a human?

Actually, no, he hadn't ever needed to, had he? Last time he'd been to Earth, everything was a miracle.

And did not do PR, clearly.

"Would I know the corporation?"

"Um, no," said Gabriel. "It's a very--very private company." He cleared his throat, and attempted to change the subject. "You were on your way home when you showed up here, you said?" he asked. "Did anything...happen that you can remember? A noise, a feeling, anything?" His transportation had been eerily devoid of tell-tale markers. He wondered if hers had been the same.

Must be very private, if it was large and yet Zach wouldn't have heard of it.

"Nothing strange, besides that I managed to get my front door open without dropping anything." He gestured at the groceries by their feet. "I heard my daughter inside, which I expected, and nothing interrupted that. I opened the door, and I heard her. I stepped inside, and I was here."

"Must've been the doorway," Gabriel murmured, mostly to himself, before he realized he'd said it aloud. "I mean, maybe. Whatever this is."

"Must've been?" Zach echoed. "Why is that?"

He'd thought as much, but it had just been speculation. Gabriel seemed much surer.

"Um, well, I mean--it's only a theory," Gabriel said. "But doorways, you know, theoretically, can be...powerful. They seem ordinary, they're ubiquitous, and they have to lead somewhere."

A theory. Uh-huh. God, but this guy was a bad liar.

"So, seriously, what does that corporation of yours do? I mean, if you know how doorways have transporting abilities..."

Gabriel bit back a heavy sigh. He really had to ask Daniel, next time he saw him, how he did this all the time. It was exhausting. "Technology?" he tried, but that one sounded unconvincing even to his own ears.

"Oh, that's awesome. I blog about technology sometimes. What kind?"

Probably Zach shouldn't be having this much fun.

"Um. Proprietary technology," he said. How many billions of humans on Earth and he had to run into one who would keep asking questions?

This had been so much easier when fire still confused them.

"Cool, cool. What field?"

Zach had three older siblings and quite possibly would have been a journalist if the opportunity to blog and be a stay-at-home mom hadn't presented itself. Not a good combination for anyone who wanted to hide something.

"Oh, all right, that's enough," Gabriel said. "I have no idea how she and Daniel do this all the time," he muttered, and eyed Zach. "You probably wouldn't believe the truth if I told you."

Zach gave him a sunny smile. "You're a really bad liar. Try me."

"I'm an angel," Gabriel said flatly. "Senior angel, actually. I'm the chair of the Committee of angels that more-or-less oversees Heaven. Happy?"

It broke all sorts of protocol, and he might have to write himself up later for telling her, but part of him found it all strangely...thrilling to actually say.

...he had been spending far too much time around Lucy.

"...huh." Zach chewed her lip for a second before saying, "So, question you can answer: what's the heavenly stance on trans, gay, and otherwise queer people?"

"Oh. That. Yeah." Gabriel sighed. "Mistranslations are a nightmare. Angels are omnisexual by default and made up by quite a few different genders. Ezra and John have been together for, goodness, three millennia by now." He shrugged. "Also, strictly speaking, God is genderfluid, though right now He's He. That changes from time to time."

Zach's eyes lit up. Not literally. "Yes. Thank you. That validates pretty much everything my family believes, but with so many people throwing bullshit at us about how wrong we are, it's nice to actually know, you know?"

Gabriel nodded, then offered, "I don't know if God really has regrets, but if He does, I'm pretty sure that's one of them. The way He feels about humanity...it's pretty clear how much He cares."

Gabriel had always privately thought that humanity were His favorite sons, as it were, though it was a thought he kept firmly to himself.

"Oh, it's--I don't blame God, not remotely. It's the idiots who think their loving God hates anyone that get to me." In some rather literal ways, sometimes.

"It is rather...incomprehensible," Gabriel agreed.

"So Heaven has a...bureaucracy? That you oversee?" A heavenly bureaucracy. That was a little too ironic for Zach to believe.

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