005 - Will you do the fandango

[onlyanapple]

Who: Crowley and you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Iskaulit
When: Today!

[The Fleet will be greeted with the blasting noise of that song he got for Christmas, you know the one. If you don't, now you do. You're welcome. The screen flickers on to show the interior of the Iskaulit. Specifically, a brand new bar.

Everything is black and metalic, sleek and modern. Neon lights of blues and greens offer some light. This place screams fancy. It's even got a pretentious name, the word 'Málum' in red above the bar proper. It's an inside joke.

Crowley turns the device to grin at the audience.]

So, Varric may have started up his quaint little shithole but I'm here to offer you an alternative. After all "I might get a disease from one of these chairs" isn't what some people are looking for in a watering hole.

Open til late, free shot with every pitcher, yadda yadda, come and drink your troubles away. Enjoy our jukebox with songs from...whatever the fuck is on the network. Sorry if it's shite. That's just standard jukebox fare, if we're being honest.

Let's drink our bullshit troubles away.

[[OOC: And from this point on, Málum is a location you can use! If your character wants a handwaved job, they're welcome to it. The more people, the less Crowley has to work for himself and he does love less work.

Comments

[onlyanapple]

[He's tempted to brush it off, throw a snarky comment into the mix. But that would somehow lessen the importance Aziraphale has in his life, and that...wouldn't be right. ]

He kept my existence from being miserable, I suppose.

[beardstrokes]

I'm sure you had a hand in doing the same for him as well.

[onlyanapple]

Oh, I went out of my way to make his life miserable. Stopped him from being boring and stuffy. Got him to let go a bit, instead of being all...stalwart and what have you.

[beardstrokes]

How magnanimous of you. I'm sure your sacrifice was not in vain.

[onlyanapple]

I ruffled his edges a bit after a few millennia, but he stayed pretty much the same. Seems stalwart leopards can't change their spots. Just learned to live with it, in the end.

[beardstrokes]

Have you changed though?

[onlyanapple]

I suppose I have. The free will thing was interesting.

[beardstrokes]

"Was"? Hopefully, the appeal remains.

[onlyanapple]

Oh yes, that's stuck with me. I'm rather fond of it.

[beardstrokes]

I should hope so.

[onlyanapple]

Well, yes. It's an important thing, free will.

[beardstrokes]

[ He nods, drifting in his own thoughts. ]

The Light and the Dark often comes down to such a thing - free will. It can make or break us.

[onlyanapple]

Of course. Both have their merits and their pitfalls, light and dark. I find taking a route right through the middle does wonders.

[beardstrokes]

If there is one, I have yet to see it.

[ But perhaps Anakin and Ahsoka will find it. ]

But it's not feasible for me.

[onlyanapple]

I tend to find humanity thrives there.

No? Got to stay on the one side, hmm?

[beardstrokes]

I don't think I have it in me to be anything else. Allowing for that . . . grey part.

[ Most of it is due to stubbornness . . . but also real fear. Too many Dark Lords have tried to sway him. ]

[onlyanapple]

[It's in him to argue about such things. To say that no the grey area is important. That sticking to one side or the other isn't good for anyone.

But this reminds him of the conversations he's had with Aziraphale, and as such, he relents. ]

Suppose you got to do what you got to do.

[beardstrokes]

[ He's aware of it. He'll never begrudge people for finding that, but he is of the Light. To be anything else . . . simply wasn't possible. ]

And I always do.

[onlyanapple]

[Crowley takes a sip of his drink, leaning back. ]

Well, yes. That's rather the point.

[beardstrokes]

[ The point . . . Not to give in, not to surrender. He was taught obedience to manage his own temper and rebelliousness, but even Qui-Gon could not teach Obi-Wan to accept the inevitable.

Qui-Gon was terrible at that. ]

I suppose I was simply never thought otherwise.

[onlyanapple]

Well, no. You wouldn't. You get told how things are, what the consequences are if you don't follow the rules...and so you stick to them. It's natural.

[Every fibre of his being wants to tempt and beguile. It's what he does best. But he can't. He actually likes Obi-Wan, and if this is important, he won't try to turn his head away from it. ]

[beardstrokes]

That's not quite right. Though I won't deny that it was instilled in me at an early age. I owe them my obedience. . . . at times.

[ For the Jedi, it's not about the rules or what is said, but what is between the lines. He glances at his glass. ]

[onlyanapple]

[And, because he's genuinely curious, he cants his head. He's not judging, he honestly wants to know.]

And what does that obedience involve?

[beardstrokes]

[ He glances at Crowley, not sure how to answer that. ]

Well, it usually means not protesting if I don't like a decision. A measure of trust, I suppose, in the Council and the Jedi.

[onlyanapple]

That they won't send you into something that's wrong? That sort of trust?