002 :: Video

[itsjustafruit]

[Crowley is sitting outside, based on the background in the video, probably at a sidewalk cafe that's closed for the unseasonable weather. Occasionally a small snow-slide passes behind him - it's possible he's sitting under an umbrella. He's holding a mug with steam drifting up and takes a sip that doesn't fog the sunglasses he still has sitting on his face despite the obvious lack of sun.]

See, now this is what I mean. Blizzards in July. I suppose they aren't so interesting if you're accustomed to living in the southern hemisphere, but I've always been partial to Europe, which makes this a welcome novelty.

Indulge my curiosity, since I've been away a few years - what curses have you experienced in your time in the City? Which ones did you enjoy and which did you hate?

[ooc: He's just collecting information to keep from repeating the deities' efforts if he decides to start messing with people/the City.]

Comments

[itsjustafruit]

Give me some good PR to counteract the scurrilous lies being put out about me. I certainly did nothing to incite a massacre or get children killed. [Those water-guns-turned-real-guns wouldn't have hit a soul, so it totally doesn't count.]

[berthierite]

You have been a perfect gentleman to me.

[The wryness is a bit more obvious there. She doesn't have much use for gentlemen.]

Who are these slanderous agents?

[itsjustafruit]

[He has all kinds of uses for gentlemen and their avarice, pride, and greed, not to mention all the other sins they indulge in behind masks of propriety, stepping on the "little people" with impunity. Oh yes, Crowley does like gentlemen, but he makes no effort to hide his amusement about being called one.]

That's me, a perfect gentleman. The agents? Some children. I'm looking for the boy's Fagin, the little scamp. I'm not sure about the girl.

[berthierite]

Harried by children? How embarrassing.

Bruce Banner? I have no idea what you're talking about.

[itsjustafruit]

Children only have to cry wolf about a lone man and the villagers will rise up with pitchforks and torches. Trust me, I've seen it happen more times than I can count.

who? I didn't see aaaanything

[berthierite]

[Can't you just kill them? Or lock them up? Or brainwash them? Birdy just smiles.]

I suppose you're quite right. Which is the supposed god?

[itsjustafruit]

[That's not really his style.]

Hercules. I think if you are here for any time at all, you'll see some glistening, oiled part of his body on the network. He's just the type.

[berthierite]

I did see such a thing, you are correct.

[Yawn.]

[itsjustafruit]

I feel violated. [False.] I didn't ask to see that. [Very true.]

[berthierite]

Perhaps you should take your recompense.

[itsjustafruit]

I'm sure that the City will provide me with an opportunity to see him equally appalled. [And if not the City, Crowley has a few tricks up his sleeve.]

[berthierite]

You invoke that city as if it had a mind of its own.

[itsjustafruit]

Not a single mind, no. But I prefer crediting the City to crediting the deities. They're an okay lot and all, but I can't help a certain monotheistic mindset.

[berthierite]

Humans will worship anything.

[Her disdain is subtle, her smile self-effacing as if she numbered herself among them.]

[itsjustafruit]

What do you worship then?

[berthierite]

I don't worship, personally. But I pay my respects to the stars.

[itsjustafruit]

Do you think they return the favor?

[berthierite]

Why should they?

[itsjustafruit]

I can't think of a single reason, so why bother?

[berthierite]

They're beautiful.

[itsjustafruit]

Fair enough I guess.

[berthierite]

What binds you to your One God, then?

[itsjustafruit]

That is the longest of long stories.

I'm not a worshiper.

[berthierite]

That isn't precisely what I asked.

[itsjustafruit]

But it's exactly what I answered. Wouldn't I just sound like a madman if I said I'd seen His face?