dizzy_land | It's just the power to charm

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It's just the power to charm

((Closed to Cayce, Azi, Crowley, and Ellie. Backdated to a day or two after the Bentley Babes caper.))

Cayce wasn't jealous. That much was easy enough to define; she cared for Crowley a lot, but not That Way. And notwithstanding her admission at the community Truth or Dare game, she definitely wasn't queer for Ellie either, although she certainly liked her well enough. Actually, she thought the two of them pairing up was kind of cute.

But for reasons she was still hard pressed to identify, she was a little perturbed when the two of them up and vanished from the lake party, and clearly Aziraphale was too. They'd exchanged a few half-heartedly snarky (and subtly worried) comments at the time before finally sort of shrugging it off, and Cayce had said something about coming by the tea shop later.

So now she was suiting action to the word. She sort of hoped that Crowley wouldn't be around. It'd spare everyone a touch of awkwardness.

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Aziraphale took the kettle off and started putting a tray together for her before he answered. "Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I was watching them all afternoon at the party, and I'm positive Ellie wasn't employing her...talents on him. Except in the most obvious and superficial sense, I mean, and he's more than capable of fending off that kind of advances. I've seen him do it many times. With her, even."

He set the tray in front of her and seated himself in the opposite chair. "Only that time he didn't. And I don't understand why. My first thought was that it must be the park playing its games again, but that doesn't make sense either. It seems to be just the two of them, and it's gone on for well over twenty-four hours now." He shook his head. "I'm almost ready to give it up as no harm done and not my business anyway, but I don't know..." He trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought in front of her. Crowley's emotional armor was well-nigh impenetrable, and he very rarely set it aside. But when he did, it left him very, very vulnerable.

Cayce poured a cup of tea and gestured to Aziraphale, asking if he wanted one himself.

"I don't think it's the park. No one else got zapped. That I know of." She felt her ears going warm; the truth was, she'd gotten a bit of a vibe of some kind off Ellie and Crowley despite herself, and had spent a large part of the afternoon trying hard to ignore it. But wild horses were not going to drag that out of her in front of Aziraphale. "I dunno. I mean, Crowley's my friend and I like Ellie fine, but—" Her hand helicoptered in a sort of helpless "fuck if I know" gesture.

Aziraphale nodded at the offer, and shrugged, prepared to concede defeat. "I assume nothing untoward happened on the way there?" he asked, just on the off-chance.

Cayce handed Aziraphale the cup and poured herself one. "Not unless you count some entirely garden-variety drinking, and not even by the driver," she said wryly. "We ran into a few of the usual suspects. Logan and others. The T-Rex. Oh, and Aphrodite. She—" Cayce set her cup down with a clank. "Aphrodite," she repeated. "Oh crap..."

Aziraphale nearly dropped the cup she'd just handed him.

"Aphrodite?" he croaked, then cleared his throat and went on in a somewhat unsteady voice, "All right. Let's--let's not jump to conclusions, or panic. Please tell me exactly what happened, as best you can remember."

"Right." Cayce rubbed a hand over her face. "Let's see ... well, she made a kind of grand entrance, shower of rosepetals and all that crap. Said hello, and Ellie offered her a glass of champagne. Which she took, and I guess it went over pretty well. And ... and that was it. You know, waved goodbye and smiled prettily, blew us a kiss, and went on her way." She frowned. "Is there any reason she'd want to mess with—with Crowley? Or ... I guess someone like her doesn't need a reason, probably."

"She blew you a kiss..." Aziraphale frowned as well. "Be still a moment, please."

He gave her a long, eerily intense look over the rims of his spectacles, and then sat back with a quiet groan, shoving them up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Drat, blast and dash it all," he muttered. "That insufferable Greek hussy. She left something on you. Nothing to worry about, I think; it's weak, and mostly decayed now. You may have got caught by accident. But I don't think we need look any further for our culprit." He settled his glasses back in place with a sigh. "She doesn't really need a reason, no, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if Crowley had somehow managed to give her offense. He has rather a talent for that, even when he's not really trying."

His fingers were now drumming distractedly on the table top, betraying his worry.

"Well, crap." Cayce took a too-hasty sip of tea and burned her tongue. "Is there ... I mean, whatever happened, it's ... is there anything we can do? Or should?"

And how, she wondered, were Crowley and Ellie going to react when they found out that they'd been hexed? It was a good thing they liked each other to begin with, but being manipulated, especially into that ... She gave Aziraphale a worried look.

That, yes. While neither angels nor demons were technically gifted with free will, that only made it worse when those choices they were permitted to make for themselves were taken away. Still, something like this didn't precisely rate as a catastrophe. Not unless...

"I don't know," he said. "Crowley seems anything but unhappy, and I can only assume Ellie is pleased. The whole thing may have backfired. Or she may not have intended any real harm to begin with, I don't know, these pagan deities are something of an enigma to me. But they have a right to know, obviously." He drank some of his own tea, a bit more cautiously.

"It's not the--the sex that worries me so much," he explained awkwardly. "Matters of the body aren't quite the same for us as they are for you; as comfortable as we may become in a human form over time, it's not what we really are. More like a very well-worn and comfortable piece of clothing." He shook his head. "What concerns me more is that Aphrodite has the power to do much more than instill lust. I hope for everyone's sake that she didn't go any further than that."

Cayce felt weirdly embarrassed on Aziraphale's behalf, although she was pretty sure that actually saying so would only be more embarrassing.

"How would you know?" she wondered. "If she did more than just make them, um, well, fall into bed together? You're right, though, they definitely need to know. If for no other reason than that they'll be ready if there is ... something else."

"I'm not sure there's any way to tell for certain. As I'm sure you know, these things can get terribly messy even when there's no supernatural interference." The angel sighed. "I'll speak to Crowley about it," whenever he actually makes it home again. "Would you have a word with Ellie? She should understand very well how these things work." And if they were about to stir up a hornet's nest, he'd rather have Crowley angry with him than at Cayce. Not to mention that he had zero rapport with the succubus.

"If they're both able to be reasonable about it, then I doubt we need to worry ourselves further. If not..." He raised his hands helplessly. "Well, we'll just have to think of something." In that case, Psyche might be able to help...

"Yeah. I'll talk to Ellie." Whenever she comes up for air.

And then a thought struck Cayce, unknowingly echoing Aziraphale's own: "Should we talk to Psyche? I mean, she probably knows about her—her mother-in-law and their bunch better than anyone else here. She might have some advice. Or be able to see if there's any other bad stuff going on."

"I had the very same thought," Aziraphale said, smiling slightly. "It probably couldn't hurt, though I'd rather try to handle this privately first..." He stopped, then laughed a little at himself. "Of course, since you're already aware of what's going on, she probably is too."

"Probably," Cayce said wryly. "We should probably talk to Crowley and Ellie first, though, and go from there, I guess."

"Agreed," Aziraphale said, and helped himself to a croissant, feeling cautiously optimistic. It wasn't the first time he'd had to deal with some unexpected and uncomfortable problem involving Crowley, but this time he had an ally. He'd never realized how much of a difference that could make.

"I'll give you a shout if anything goes pear-shaped for me," Cayce said. She picked up a croissant and twisted one of the points off. "And Aziraphale? Thanks. It—I'm glad you're looking out for Crowley."

Just doing my job, he almost said, and had to stop himself, because it wasn't. It really wasn't. But it had become so much a part of what he was that he simply couldn't comprehend doing otherwise.

"Likewise, my dear," he said instead, reaching across to pat her hand and smiling. "He does take rather a lot of looking after, doesn't he?"

"More than he'll ever admit," Cayce agreed with a small laugh.

((Anything else we need to cover, or shall our heroes move on to their respective heart-to-hearts?))

((I think we can move on from here. New thread or just new sub-threads?))

((New sub-threads suit me fine. I'll kick one off for Cayce and Ellie.))

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It's just the power to charm

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