Diplomatic Envoy to Fantasyland and a Letter to Cayce (RP, Aziraphale and Psyche)

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

A few days after the prayer meeting and Sylar's rude interruption, Aziraphale set out to run some errands. The first, unfortunately, proved in vain, and he dropped a letter in the mail with a heavy heart before proceeding to the second.

Dear Miss Cayce,

I am loathe to be the bearer of possible bad news, but I stopped by to see how Mr. Adams was doing this morning, and both the first aid station and the opera house appear to be abandoned. Have you seen or heard from him or from Susan since the prayer meeting?

Aziraphale

A short time later found him approaching the clearing next to the Small World ride, carrying a bouquet of flowers and looking pensive.

Comments

[caycep]

She'd had to go look for herself. Which turned into scouring the entire park with the proverbial fine-tooth comb, and it was a shaky, tearful Cayce who penned a letter to the angel later that night:

Aziraphale,

I saw Susan the morning after the prayer meeting -- stopped by to see how Adams was doing. But I haven't been by since, and I have to admit it's not unusual for me to go a couple days without saying hello. I went looking all over the park after I got your letter and I can't find them anywhere.

Thank you for letting me know.

-Cayce

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Dear Cayce,

Oh dear, that's what I was afraid of. Well, there's no help for it, I suppose. Perhaps we can take some comfort in their going together. And it's possible they may turn up again.

How are you holding up, my dear? Do stop by the Club anytime if you would like some company.

Aziraphale

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

The little pavilion near the ride was empty at the moment, though a half-bound manuscript on the table seemed only recently abandoned. A few other handmade books, scuffed and stained here and there with grape jam and crayon, sat in a stack on the table's edge.

The place's occupant was sitting on the edge of one of the ride's waterways, dangling her white feet and watching the boats drift past her.

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale paused a moment to look over the books with interest, though he didn't touch them. Not many people practiced the art of bookbinding anymore, though it made perfect sense to him that someone like Psyche would.

After tsk'ing a moment over the stains, he wandered across the grass toward where the goddess sat, clearing his throat softly as he approached her. Much as he genuinely liked her, it always made him a little uncomfortable dealing with pagan deities (particularly given that Psyche had once been human, and by Heaven's rules, still was.) "Excuse me. Lady Psyche?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche looked up. "Oh. Hello." Her eyes weren't reddened or swollen in the least - they couldn't be, any more than she could get a cold or come down with hiccups or grow old - but her face was damp with tears.

She produced a bright, distant smile. "Is there something I can help you with?"

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale blinked. Whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been this. "Oh. I, ah...have I come at a bad time?"

Shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, he started to switch the flowers to his other hand, then rolled his eyes slightly at his own ridiculousness and handed them to Psyche as he fumbled out his handkerchief with his off-hand. "These are for you, of course. I...well, I came to apologize for my behavior the other night. For leaving you to clean up my mess, as it were. I must have come across as a terrible hypocrite after all that talk about understanding and reaching out..." He offered her the handkerchief as well. "I'm very sorry. Is...there something wrong?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no," she said, accepting the handkerchief, and then staring at it for a moment. "It's just, a dear friend of mine is gone. And I miss her - I'll miss her very much. But." She wiped her face and then offered the bit of cloth back to Aziraphale. "Thank you. And you don't need to apologize to me."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

He took back the handkerchief and absently miracled it dry before tucking it away again.

"No," he said, brow furrowed, "No, I daresay it's young Gabriel to whom I really owe an apology. But I doubt he'd want me anywhere around him right now. And if I understand correctly, whatever suffering I caused him must have been felt by you as well." He sighed. "I'm afraid I bollocks up that entire situation rather badly. But...forgive me, obviously you have other things on your mind. I'm sorry about your friend. Two of mine seem to have disappeared just in the last day or so, as well." He wondered whether Susan was the one she'd been speaking of, but he didn't want to pry.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Oh dear," she said, rather more sympathically. "I'm sorry, then. Look," getting to her feet, and shaking them a bit to get rid of the water, "why don't we go sit down and. Have something to drink, maybe? There are some books I was meaning to send you. And we can talk about what happened. To tell you the truth, I'm a little worried about Gabriel. Or Sylar."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

He nodded and walked back toward the pavilion with her. "I was hoping perhaps we could. I'm on rather shaky ground where he's concerned and I was hoping you might have more insight. ...Also, I saw some of your books as I was coming in; they're quite interesting. Your own work?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Well, yes and no. And yes again, in a metaphorical and intensely egotistical sense. By which I mean that I copied them out from memory. Most of the volumes," she walked under the canvas roof's edge, " - mind your head - are love poetry, but I also made these four for Susan to teach the children from. The Iliad and the Odyssey, in Greek, you see," opening one to show him, "and then a facing English translation, which was interesting to do. I don't know if they're exactly the versions people use in the modern era, mostly I was just writing them down as I'd been taught them as a girl. And of course they've got a bit of wear on them - the stains were Calvin, of course, Pearl was always very careful with books. Though I did quite enjoy his - no, Hobbes's - crayon illustration of the Cyclops..."

She bit her lip, pausing for a moment with her hand on the spread pages.

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Ducking under the edge of the pavilion, Aziraphale joined her and studied the books with an air of long expertise. "Of course," he said softly, tracing the familiar words with fond eyes. "These must have taken a great deal of work."

When Psyche faltered, he cast her a sympathetic glance and added, "I'll miss Susan as well. I wouldn't say we were close, but I have tremendous respect for the lady, and I also owe her a considerable debt. Her students have gone as well, then?" To his regret, he hadn't kept very close track of the park's children and their goings-on.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Pearl and Calvin, and Calvin's tiger. Pippi's still here. But she was always more independent than the other two." She didn't inquire about the debt, though she may, due to her frequent lunches and talks with Susan, have had some idea about it. The dealings of other immortal beings wasn't her business, she felt, in the way those of mortals was. "Susan is very dear to me."

"As for the books. Well. I don't have much else to be doing, really. There are also," she pulled out the other two, "Tennyson's Idylls of the King, because I was trying to explain about why there's a sword in a block of concrete by the carousel. And The Little Prince, with my own amateurish illustrations, I'm afraid. I don't know how much use they'll be to you or your library, but you're welcome to them if you like."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

"I think they're quite lovely," the angel said sincerely, "and I'll be happy to keep them for you, if that is what you'd like. If more children should arrive, they might prove useful again. But they're certainly worth preserving regardless." It was possible Susan herself might turn up again; though having given it a bit more thought since his letter to Cayce, he wasn't sure that getting anyone's hopes up was a good idea.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," said Psyche. "I'd just like someone to get use out of them, really. There's so little for...well, for all of us to do, that I thought we might as well share whatever we'd managed to pick up in our lives."

There was a chair near the table, as well as a delicate (and obviously anachronistic) fainting couch; she gestured the angel towards the former while seating herself, straight-backed, on the latter. "Please, have a seat. Can I give you anything to drink? Water, or...or wine, or tea, even?"

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale was all about anachronisms himself, and found the decor quite appealing. He took the chair she indicated. "Thank you, my dear. Wine would be nice, if it wouldn't put you out." Even he could only drink so much tea. "Well, you saw what happened when I tried to offer a bit of a diversion. I don't know if I mentioned it, by the by, but I do appreciate your coming to the meeting. Though I'll confess I was also a bit puzzled."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

There were plenty of odd offshoots of one time or another collected in the pavilion: more manuscripts, a drop spindle with bundles of thread, and hand-carded cotton out of big plastic bags of cotton balls. A bronze knife laid out on the table, a sharp-edged but lovely white feather, an oil lamp, a bunch of opium poppies in a glass.

"Puzzled? Puzzled how?" she asked. Creating an empty glass, she tapped it with her index finger, to see it fill with... "Oh, Cru Beaujolais. I'm afraid my conjuring is unpredictable when it comes to wine - will that do?"

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

"Perfectly lovely, thank you," he said. "And I don't know, I suppose it just never occurred to me that a deity would be interested in, well, praying. Although I suppose I'm somewhat willfully ignorant on the whole subject," he added apologetically.

Angels had once been encouraged to oppose pagan deities just as they would demons; these days the official policy seemed to be to ignore their existence entirely, but the first approach had always seemed to him unnecessarily harsh (well, with some deities, at least) and the second downright rude. Still, their ways weren't something he'd ever felt it prudent to delve into too much, outside of what could be gleaned from the classics. Which he suspected weren't exactly authoritative sources.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

She created another glass for herself, and, sipping the pale red wine, shot him an enigmatic glance from over the glass's rim. "I was a very pious girl, once upon a time. I do still have a particular god to honor, absent from me though he may be."

"Besides, I find prayer interesting."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Of course," said Aziraphale, feeling dense. "Howso, if I may ask?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you know. Differing forms for it over time - most religions having moved away from offering and sacrifice, though incantation remains popular. The informal - or perhaps you might call it Puritan - kind of prayer which is so popular now, a solitary dialogue between oneself and one's god. Social prayer, which used to be the purpose of festivals, and is still performed in prayer meetings like yours. And I think it's interesting to think of what the purpose of prayer in all of these instances might be: a proposed exchange, a plea, unconditional praise, or just...release and peace of mind for the person praying."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale considered all that, his head tilted slightly to one side. "Do you know, up until the meeting, I'd rarely actually prayed before, as such. I don't think the kind of communion I have with my Creator is quite the same thing. Like sending a letter isn't the same as having a face to face conversation, you know? But it was very much the social aspect that prompted me to organize the thing. I hope that even with the way it ended, it was of some comfort to everyone."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Well, as a hope that seemed rather recklessly optimistic, even to Psyche. "I'm sure being united against a common enemy fostered some kind of social connection. Which is often a great comfort, of course, as long as you're on the right side."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale smiled wryly, not entirely incapable of reading between the lines. "Well, if nothing else I suppose it ensured the next gathering wouldn't suffer the same end. You said you were worried about Gabriel. Would you care to elaborate?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't say that followed, necessarily. There's always someone willing to try their luck, especially if there are rumors of spectacular consequences to be had. Human nature," said Psyche in a dry voice.

She took another sip of her wine and rubbed the stem of the glass with the side of her thumb, gathering her thoughts. "Gabriel - if you prefer that name. Well, he has had one of the basic tenets of his personality overturned. Forcibly, and worse, probably impermanently - or so it seemed to me?" She gave Aziraphale a questioning look. "Whether it's for the better is certainly an important question to ask - but if he wants to hold onto the change, and can't..." She shook her head.

"I've seen something like this before, you know." Her tone suggested the results hadn't been pretty.

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale steepled his fingers and sat back, frowning. If he didn't know better, he would think Psyche was going out of her way to make him feel as bad as possible about the entire affair. Not that he didn't wholly deserve it, of course. More likely she was just being realistic.

"I prefer to see it as a basic tenet of his personality being restored, but I suppose that's just playing with semantics," he said after a moment. "It's impermanent in that he can slide back into his previous mindset if he chooses to do so. It comes down to whether he wishes to make the effort to prevent that from happening. Given his history, of course, it's very likely he won't. And no, I didn't know."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"My husband has an...inimitable sense of humor, the repercussions of which are sometimes messy, from my standpoint. There was," she bit her lip for a moment, considering. "There was a case not long before I arrived in this place - it was I came to know Susan, in fact. A young man who was...broken, to use the word most commonly applied...had certain feelings bestowed upon him for a limited time."

"Broken things tend to have exceptionally sharp edges. Other people can be cut deeply."

She looked up from her glass to meet his eyes. "I don't mean to accuse you of...of wrongdoing in this case. You acted in defense of others, out of quite understandable anger and in an effort to make things better. But you should understand, whatever he's done, Gabriel is as fully a part of me as any of the others in that meeting. And right now he's...lost."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

He sighed. "You're more forgiving than my own people would be, then. The man had chosen to abandon, or suppress, his own sense of right and wrong, and I had no right to take that choice away from him. Such things are very much against the rules, and for good reasons, including but not limited to those you just cited." He rubbed his forehead distractedly. "I could reverse what I did, of course, if it wouldn't run contrary to his wishes now. Of course if I did, he'd go right back to being a danger to everyone else, and possibly invite even more severe retaliation..." He thought he could feel a migraine coming on.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"No," she said immediately. "Don't you see, it's so much worse, to have a chance and then have it taken away again. Even if it feels like a relief at the time, it's like dropping something on your foot and then cutting it off to make it stop hurting."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

The angel nodded. "I won't, then. But I fear that leaves my hands tied, apart from apologizing, when and if he's willing to hear it."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"I know." She sighed. "Matters aren't improved, of course, by the fact that he's one of the mortals my mother-in-law has been...toying with."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

"Oh dear, that...is a bit of a complication," said Aziraphale in the same tone of voice in which he might have said, 'Why yes, I believe that is Beelzebub.'

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"She has a fine instinct for destructive potential," said Psyche wryly. "Of course, she also has a tendency to trip herself up, so we must just hope for the best and trust in her inability to form a coherent plan. For all I know she doesn't have the least idea any of this has happened."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale considered. "Actually, I should think this development would interfere with any plans she might have involving him. If she finds out, I expect she will do her best to persuade Gabriel he would rather go back to being Sylar. They seem to have so much more in common."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Hm. Possibly. Certainly Sylar is more, um, 'blessed' with hubris. The trouble is," Psyche said ruefully, "so few people here have really any notion of what gods are, and what it means to deal with us. People who meet her are apt to either revere her too highly, or else to treat her as just another new acquaintance who happens to have a pretty face and a useful set of talents. I wonder, sometimes, if I haven't led the public astray by trying to be...human, more or less, to the people who don't stand in immediate need. It may have left people with a false impression. She's...of a much older breed."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale gave her a look over the rims of his spectacles that reflected, for an instant, just how old he was and how many pagan deities he had seen come and go over the millennia. Psyche would have struck him as quite remarkable simply for having survived so long, even if he hadn't rather liked her. "But you are human, my dear. Arguably more so than most people. You'd do yourself a grave disservice if you tried to deny it." He wasn't about to get into the matter of her soul, but there was no question in his mind that she still possessed one.

"As for Aphrodite, I doubt that false impression is any sort of accident. She may crave mortal worship, but I'm sure she knows how to use their ignorance to her full advantage as well."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I am." Her eyes twinkled back at him. "But I'm a bit unusual in that respect; I have a sort of dual citizenship, if you like." Of course she still had a soul. She was Soul.

"Believe me, you can't tell me anything about my mother-in-law and how she operates. Hopefully Gabriel's recent change will have given him a chance to reconsider associating with her. But if he made any promises to her she'll certainly hold him to them, regardless." She shook her head. "There was a time when people knew better than to treat conversation with gods lightly. ...Hence much of the disguising themselves as shepherds and so on, I suppose."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

"No, of course I wouldn't presume. Just thinking aloud," the angel assured her. He smiled sadly at her observation. "People no longer treat many things with the seriousness they deserve. I blame science, personally. They seem to think they can explain away anything if they try hard enough, and if they can explain it, that means they can control it. Utter rubbish, of course."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Ah, well, I suppose there's always been that desire to believe that one has more understanding and control of The Way Things Work than one does. If it isn't science it's dogma; if it isn't dogma it's sophistical philosophy. After all, I know very few immortals, either, who'd care to have a continual sense of perspective about their own importance in the universe."

"Which doesn't stop me from wanting to slap people upside the head when they blithely enter into compacts with she who is called the Gravedigger, and the Killer of Men. I mean really. And it's usually for such damn silly reasons."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale nodded. "Oh, always. You should talk to my associate sometime. His people don't even pretend not to be acting against humanity's interests, and yet people sign away their souls as though tomorrow will never come. They simply don't grasp that there are consequences." He sighed. "What do you suppose she might require him to do? Even under duress he could do an incredible amount of damage with all those stolen abilities."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"I have no idea, really. Obviously he's not really in a position here to kill anyone, but she might like to play around with the lesser powers around here by having him prey on them. Or just stir up trouble. If I were trying to protect someone in particular, for example, she'd no doubt want to send Sylar after him or her." Psyche tapped her wine glass thoughtfully. "She's not really used to having pawns with supernatural talents, you know. Aside from perhaps a particularly strong warrior or beautiful woman. It would be much easier to predict what she'd do to an ordinary mortal."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale frowned slightly. "Are you aware of anyone else in the park with whom she has had disagreements or rivalries, who might be likely targets?" Alas, he was completely unaware that at least three people of his own close acquaintance fell into that category.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Anyone particularly attractive or powerful who doesn't pay her or her avocation proper attention?" Psyche suggested whimsically. "She doesn't exactly confide in me, you know: when she mentions other people at all it's usually taunts or an unsubtle attempt to draw me into an intrigue."

"That's what I worry about most," she added. "The little games she likes to play - mortal lives as pawns. Well, it isn't only her, most of the older gods like that kind of thing. But there's nothing Mother would like better than to play that game against me. She's always been convinced I cheated, the first time."

Psyche paused, then admitted with a quirk to her lips, "And of course I did. By some definitions, anyway, and I'd do it again. But, well. Having the two of us here, surrounded by mortals - I'm always in fear that she'll decide to interfere with someone I'll feel honor-bound to try to protect."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Well, Aziraphale understood about occasionally bending the rules for a good cause. "I used to worry about that sort of thing with Crowley before we came to our Arrangement. But Aphrodite hardly sounds like the type who can be reasoned with."

He started to say something else, then stopped and laughed wryly. "There, now, I was going to offer to help if such a situation did ever arise, but considering my track record thus far I should probably leave well enough alone. Nonetheless, if I see or hear anything that seems relevant, you will be the first to hear of it."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

She smiled back at him. "I don't suppose you could call long-simmering, catty resentment an Arrangment? I suppose it does do us both good to have an enemy in sight, and I have been a member of her House for a long time now."

"But thank you for that, at any rate. And I'll try to keep you informed, as well."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, my dear. For that and the refreshments, and your charming company. I suppose I should be getting along." The angel rose, picking up the books. "Do you know, I've often wondered why humans have seen the need to devise deities for themselves when they already have a perfectly good Creator. It would make a great deal more sense to me if more of them were like you." He did hope that came out to the compliment it was intended to be...

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche's expression went a little distant, but she smiled politely as she rose with him. "Well. That's a bit of a complex issue, and one we're likely to have different views on. But, ah, thank you for your good opinion of me."

[soho-angel.livejournal.com]

Sensing he'd misstepped, the angel chose to quit while he was behind, bowed slightly, and wished her a pleasant afternoon before retreating.

Well, that was a stupid thing to say, he told himself on the walk back to the tea shop. But there it was: there were some...prejudices, he supposed he had to call them if he were being honest, that more or less came with his job and couldn't be overcome if he wanted to remain what he was. Associating so closely with one of the Fallen was dangerous enough, but at least he and Crowley were fundamentally in agreement as to who was ultimately In Charge. Coming to this place had raised a great many new questions to which ineffable was an unsatisfactory answer, but it was still really the only one he had.

Well, at least they'd come to some sort of accord over the matter of Sylar. Gabriel. Whatever he called himself. He wasn't sure he felt any better about anything, and he didn't suppose he'd been much help to Psyche either, but perhaps some good would eventually come out of it. He hoped.