dizzy_land | (no subject)

James and Sirius, for today an accountant and a dentist, respectively, put the finishing touches on the Haunted Mansion (they had started the night before, and upon finding that in the morning their changes were still there, they had been quite pleased and finished up). Now that the room where the ceiling rose was magicked so that everyone would fit in it and still have plenty of space to move. On top of that, they had magically rewired the loudspeakers to the room, put up some spooky decorations, and even completed it with fake, scary looking ghosts (they had both been quite disappointed in the morning to discover that some of their ruder decorations, including hot, naked ghosts, were removed).

Then, James began to write the letters, and started some music.

Crowley,

We're throwing a party at the Haunted Mansion. Do you think you could provide refreshments? Feel free to come as well.

- James Potter and Sirius Black

Then, identical letters were sent out to everyone in the park.

Hey,

There will be a Halloween party at the Haunted Mansion in New Orlean's Square. Come around and have a great time. Also, if you have drinks or food that you want to bring to share, feel free.

- James Potter and Sirius Black

On the bottom of the paper, there's a witch flying on a broom, actually moving around on the paper.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Funny you should mention that, because I was thinking about writing a feature on that very subject. But I can give you a preview." She ticked the items off on her fingers as she went. "All the usual stuff we tell the new arrivals; the concrete underground; the monorail; the timekeeping problems. And," she lowered her voice, "I'd love to get someone who could actually provide an eyewitness account of the park interfering with lethal force, but somehow I don't think anyone's going to come forward on that."

Adam nodded through the list. "Sorry, I can't help you there either. I haven't fought with anybody."

"Yeah. It'd be nice if I could get some kind of conformation, even anonymously, but --" She shrugged. "You can definitely be injured. I've seen the aftermath of at least one fight and have heard of a couple of others. Whatever it is wants to keep us alive, I guess, but --" She shivered slightly.

The boy tilted his head slightly as he noticed Cayce shiver. "That worries you...?"

"Mm. What worries me is the 'how are they watching and how do they know' part, whoever 'they' are."

That part was easy. In Adam's case, he usually just set a trigger on his consciousness to prod him whenever 'something bad' was happening. (It was a loose term, but his head understood what he meant even if he still occasionally got false alarms.) That meant he didn't have to pay too much attention. He couldn't explain that to Cayce, however, so he tried a different tack.

"Well, Crowley told me once that there's special cameras in London that only turn on when someone's runnin' a red light or robbin' a bank or doing summat else they shouldn't be. Maybe that's what's happenin' here. 'Cause it'd be too hard to watch everybody all the time."

"Heh. You know, London in 2004 is the most heavily surveillance-camera'd city in the world? Or one of them? That's not the sort of thing that cheers me up, exactly." She smiled wryly; it was sort of a joke. "On the other hand, it's as good an explanation as any."

Adam lifted up his captain's hat to run a hand through his blond hair. "But if we're being looked after by computers or summat, that's better than imaginin' invisible guys hoverin' around an' watchin' you all the time, right?"

Okay, this was starting to get into hypocrisy territory. Fortunately, being the Antichrist kind of looses one from society's moral expectations, as it were.

"An' Crowley says they dun't work properly anyway."

"Definitely better than invisible guys," she said, grinning. "And I guess it's not surprising that the cameras don't work properly. Stuff breaks. It's the nature of stuff. Except here, of course, where stuff breaks and is fixed right away."

He shrugged and gave a wry half-smile. "Can't explain everythin'."

"True." Cayce looked at him curiously. "So what's your take on this place? Apart from the facts we all know and love -- what's your feeling about it?"

Adam got a dreamy sort of expression on his face, as if he were suddenly very far away. "Someone loves this place an awful lot." He paused a moment and his smile lit the world. "It feels like home."

That wasn't the answer she'd expected.

Nor had she expected anything he might say to make her feel better. Maybe it was that smile. She almost thought that no one should be allowed to smile like that, but then realized the world would be a much better place if more people did.

"You think ... whatever, whoever it is," she said slowly, "you really think they mean well, huh?"

"Oh, yes," he said with the kind of certainty you could build the universe around. People were people. Sometimes they made mistakes. But other times their dreams were so beautiful - so much more real than reality - that you had to love them and you had to forgive them for the other things they could imagine.

"I got to meet you," Adam grinned. "Dun't see how that could be bad."

Coming from anyone else, that would have sounded silly. But Cayce found herself grinning.

"Well. Thanks. And likewise." A tiny shrug. "I guess anywhere you can find good friends isn't that bad, in the end." John. Crowley. Kira. And everyone else.

"Do you think we'll remember this? When we go back?"

Belatedly she realized she'd said "when", not "if".

"You're right 'bout that," Adam agreed, "Good friends are hard to find no matter where you are." Then he grew thoughtful. "But I think you'll remember 'em if you wanna..."

"I hope you're right," she replied. "I mean, otherwise, what's all this for?" Oh, how existential, Cayce. "And that was probably way too philosophical for a party," she added quickly.

He chuckled. "Dun't worry. Pretty much all my conversations turn into philosophical ones."

See how cleverly Adam avoided the question?

"But it's not fair me keepin' you to myself all night. Thanks for all the information, Cayce, an' I hope I see you around."

A very clever avoidance. Luckily Cayce wasn't interested in pursuing it, so she simply grinned at Adam and said, "Be seeing you then. Have a good evening!"