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Who: Aziraphale and OPEN
What: Just vibing around the North Pole tbh. May also serve as a general catchall for other bits and bobs through the month.
Where: Several places! Library, dining hall, Vaguely Around, etc.
When: The post-arrival pre-next plot zone. The settling-in zone, even.
Warnings/Notes: None yet, will update as needed/requested!

library.

[ Realistically, this is probably the number one place most guaranteed to get results in the Aziraphale sightings economy. The library is equal parts enrichment in his enclosure and a decent simulation of his native environment. Well, as long as he ignores the DVDs and CDs and such. Which he does.

If someone wanted to make a very posh zoo enclosure for a wild Aziraphale it would basically be this premise. He's in the library on the daily. Around the same time each day, probably, and winding up in the same specific chair, because he feels better when he can have one or two reliable little rituals on his schedule.

What he's got picked out tends to vary. Largely classic literature or stageplays, which he mostly thumbs through purely for the sake of seeing if they're very different in this reality. The ~big ones~. Austen, Wilde, Dickens, Shakespeare, Shelley, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis. Arthurian folklore but only when he's positive Crowley isn't in the library with him. For normal reasons. Some comically ancient guide of some sort about embroidery, because he's got it on the brain now.

(The very, very first thing that he makes sure to sit down with is a 'Winnie-the-Pooh' collected works, of course. It's actually so important that he knows they're the same as the ones he has memorized.)

While in the library, Aziraphale is largely open to socializing. If he's not open to socializing he'll simply not be in the library at all. He'll say friendly hellos every time he first walks in! He's happy to get introduced and talk literature and ask people about what they're reading if they seem amenable!

Although he does have a habit of hitting long stretches where he just sort of zones in on a book and stops paying attention to literally everything and everyone around him. Give him like an hour. He'll blink again, honest. ]

communal relaxation area.

[ Also a decent bet on places to find Aziraphale! It's cozy. He loves cozy. Coziness is in his top three favorite concepts humans came up with. Heaven is too minimalist to take the credit and Hell is too claustrophobic.

He might be reading by a very pretty window, as prophecy foretold. He might just be having some pastries and people-watching, like a cool normal person. An angel practicing his fancy shuffling and other card-based magic tricks? In your North Pole? It's more likely than you think. Important to note: the shuffling and sleight of hand are performed very poorly. Aziraphale is still thriving.

He's even more willing to socialize out here. It's what the whole setup is built for, truly. Come get your free "oh hello!"s and "how are you getting on?"s. Or if you like, in full 'old silly being an old silly' intonation: ]

Lovely weather we're having.

[ It's a low bar, being the funniest angel Heaven's ever turned out. But by god he's doing it. ]

wildcard.

[ for whatever other options! Aziraphale straight up doesn't do sleep, so he can theoretically be found at any hour in these locations, or like... out for a stroll or getting a snack or paging through a book. Doing everything in his power to not learn how to use the network or a modern phone or anything of the sort. If he recognizes anyone from the Wilderlands or the intro event, he's also likely to want to say hi and see how they're doing.

Possibly just having some cocoa and regarding the Globe of Belief with a very real sort of fondness. (A guardian is a guardian and Earth is Earth, even if this isn't the Earth he was made for and he's not the sort of guardian made specifically for it, technically. Always been a problem of his, he supposes. Getting attached.)

hmu with whatever or gimme a poke at

comatoseroses and we can work something out! i'll do closed starters idc. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ They stay winning. Sort of. Aziraphale is winning the most, of course, because he just got ~free praise~ and he loves when he gets free praise.

He's pathetic. He's in love. He's putting it into his brain scrapbook of validations, which is 90% Crowley and 10% random humans across time. ]

Sleight of hand is more fun to perform, anyway. When you get it right.

[ He's very good at not letting himself think about what would have happened if it hadn't gone right. It's just more fun. Is all. Takes a little more learned practical skill. ]

[He's probably being too much of a soft touch, time to fix Aziraphale with a teasing look.]

The getting it right is the important part.

[Once every century or so he gets it right, and he's having fun, so obviously that's the important part, even if Crowley fusses.]

You sure you don't want some of this? It's not awful, really.

[With a gesture to the vape; he's having a great time, tbh.]

The learning it is the important part. Getting it right comes with practice.

[ If one... actually frequently practices instead of dipping back into it after a stretch of years for the convenient novelty. None of which discounts the fun. ]

Oh, it's not awful. [ Why didn't Crowley just say so, wow. ] A ringing endorsement, my dear, but my "no" remains firm.

[ Beautiful, beloved. Looking fucking ridiculous. ]

I think practice requires some sort of consistency.

[Beautiful, beloved, Crowley is calling him the fuck out because he knows he only remembers the magic like once a decade, at best.

Consider: what if Crowley stuck his tongue out at him and then promptly decided to get more comfortable on one of the arm chairs, which mostly involves him sitting sideways on it, legs dangling one of the arms.]

More for me, then. You might have to carry me out if I forget how legs work.

[Hahaha funny joke.]

[ Aziraphale doesn't stick his tongue out in retaliation because he has so much dignity and coolheadedness. He just scrunches his nose up in a very you rude bitch sort of way. Calling him out. The audacity. ]

I think by the time I'm finished here, you'd be bored enough to have rediscovered how legs work twice over. But do keep me updated.

[ Not that he'd ever like to gently carry this idiot demon to a bed or anything haha. ]

[Crowley makes a very dismissive pfft sound, full of such doubt.]

Like I've not got plans to tempt you out for a bite to eat before then.

[The North Pole is lovely, but Crowley hasn't been slacking on the 'belief' front, so he has enough juice for a quick teleport.]

[ Aziraphale is so good at stopping himself from saying things like oh, how romantic to Crowley, either sincerely or with the deniable buffer of dryness enshrouding it. The work he puts into his repression every single day even though he's literally meant to be a being of love.

All he has in this economy is looking stupidly fond and long-suffering. ]

Diabolical as ever. [ You are the least diabolical creature he knows. ] I hope you know that contraption of yours isn't invited.

[ He'll sit down at a table and turn that vape into an embarrassing kazoo so fast, don't test him. ]

[If only he were looking at Aziraphale to catch the fond and long suffering look, but unfortunately he's busy staring at the ceiling.]

Hell ought to send me another commendation. [Now he turns his head to look at Aziraphale, his grin sharp.] Annoying an Angel of the Lord with this contraption of mine has to be worth something.

[See! He is diabolical!!]

[ Alas. Ships in the night. ]

If you've got a commendation in one hand and a contraption in the other, I think you'll find you've got one very free hand. [ Fuck Hell. Kindest regards, Aziraphale.

Now he's thinking about hands though. Maybe... if they go out... he can touch Crowley's arm... all according to plan. ]

[Things that happen in short order: Crowley snorts at the joke, opens his mouth to say something clever back, promptly shuts his mouth, and then bursts into laughter.

I'll have you in one hand is not an appropriate retort to Aziraphale's comment, but it is very funny.

Once he gets the laughter under control, he adds:]

I'll go to dinner by myself if you're going to be a bastard.

[This is the emptiest threat in the world.]

[ He empty threats Miette, like a villain. Mean. Mean for no reason, Aziraphale is keeping dinnner in his 100% guaranteed plan book. ]

Enough of a bastard to be worth knowing, too much of one to take to dinner? As many times as we've gone out, I didn't know that had a threshold.

[ Quotes Crowley to Crowley for the greater good (tasty meal). ]

There was a line, and you've crossed it.

[He makes a very dramatic gesture at Aziraphale, with The Contraption, just for extra annoyance.

To highlight the emptiness of the threat, he figures they should solidify plans, so:]

How about Thai?

[ He holds his hand to his chest as if to say moi? Over the line?

Annoyance really is a love language. And they're fluent. ]

Thai sounds lovely, thank you. Been a minute since we did Thai, hasn't it?

[There's a Pointed Eyebrow Raise but he's feeling too chill to fuss any more than he already has.]

S'what I was thinking. Reckon I could go some of that... what's it called? Sua Rong Hai?

[Sometimes he'll eat, mostly if the dish involved is just straight up meat.]

[ If Aziraphale had, for some ungodly impossible reason, been fully against the idea of going out for dinner with Crowley, truly the promise that Crowley might actually eat with him would have flipped him over to pro-dinner immediately.

It's not Earth-shatteringly rare, and it's not like having Crowley's company is better or worse one way or the other-- the company is the point, really, and the food is a lovely bonus. But, consider: it's very nice not to be eating alone sometimes, and it's very nice to see Crowley enjoy something. ]

Sua Rong Hai, yes. [ Maybe it's just as well Crowley didn't wind up in the Wilderlands. Consecrated salt issues aside, he probably would have been tetchy about having to eat for survival purposes. ] Look at that, you didn't even need to break out the wiles.

[Sometimes the next step in a relationship is holding hands and sometimes it's being willing to eat in front of them.

Crowley grins again, terribly pleased with himself for having gotten the dish right, and also for just being here in the first place, with Aziraphale. He's almost always terribly pleased about that.]

Am I not willing right now? Could've sworn I broke out the wiles ten minutes ago.

[He's being silly.]

[ Local demon absolutely zooted. Looking adorable. Aziraphale loves him, even though he's making this part of the library a sensory hazard. ]

Did you? I'm terribly sorry, I must have missed it.

[RIP to this part of the library that Aziraphale could absolutely clear of vapor of he wanted.]

S'what happens when you've got your nose stuck in a book, whole world goes by without you realizing.

[Crowley, babygirl, he put the book down a hot minute ago.]

[ Uh if he clears it he has nothing to theoretically complain about though? He has to weigh the pros and cons before he does that. ]

I set it down when you first mentioned Jane Austen, you idiot. [ Idiot (affectionate). ] What did you have your nose stuck in?

[Being called an idiot is something that can be so personal. And also make him grin like a loon.]

My awful contraption, obviously. [In which in gives the word weight in his mouth, because he can.] I'm never wasting time with joints again, this is much easier.

[Rolling joints? In this economy? Disgusting.]

Easier and, once again, not as fun.

[ This bitch just wants to watch Crowley's hands while he rolls joints. It's that simple. ]

Why let convenience cut off from an experience? [ ✨ ]

That is, without a doubt, the most you thing you've ever said.

[Far be it for Aziraphale to let convenience get in the way of the ~experience~]

Sometimes you just don't want t'mess about with papers and lighters and smoke, you know?

['You' being a general 'you' and not Aziraphale specifically.]

Everything I say is a "me" thing.

[ He's the one saying the things?? Babe. Also: ]

Not especially. To each their own, I suppose.

[ Better than messing with a lighter and a lit Thing in a library, if he's honest. But what if he doesn't invoke that mental image today. ]

That's not — you know that's not what I meant.

[Maybe that isn't the case, but he's waving a hand at Aziraphale anyway, as if this somehow communicates literally anything.]

Well, once we get our hands on the traditional stuff, you can have fun rolling all the joints you'd like.

[Bold words for someone who will absolutely be in charge of that task the second that Aziraphale asks.]

[ Aziraphale decides that what Crowley meant was "I'm stoned and you ought to just go ahead and take most of what I say with a grain of salt as far as making sense goes." Communication success, no notes. ]

I will. [ For exactly as long as it takes him to put Crowley in charge of that task. Then he'll have even more fun. ] You'll see what I mean when the time comes.