londoncallingrpg | Gathering Post

The Queen's official birthday celebrations might wait for the better, brighter weather of June, instead of the actual date just passed, but there was no lack of things to do in London this week, even if it was cooler and damper than the week before. St. George's day festivities were scattered throughout the city, competing with celebrations of the four hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Getting around the city could be even more difficult than usual on Sunday, with multiple streets closed off for the London marathon.

There were exhibits - everything from graphic design to a survey of Sicilian history to the influence of underwear. And the same level of diversity could be found whether you were in the mood for music, theatre, good food, or late night fun. There was something for everyone, and no matter your plans - or lack of plans - you never quite knew what you were going to find, or who might find you.

[Week long gp! Tag in, tag others, and check in daily to see who's joined in.]

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Yeah, time to put the wings away. At least for now. Manifesting them again was always easier than hiding them. Coby took the glass, but then concentrated his will until the wings went wherever it was they went, with no sign they'd ever been there.

With them gone it felt safer moving around without knocking into anything and everything, and Coby took a seat before sipping his drink. "How are you doing?"

Vanessa looked possibly even more startled by their disappearance than she had been by their appearance. It took her a few seconds to collect herself, and then she brought her cigarettes, and the ashtray, over to the coffee table by the sofa, to join him on it with them at hand.

"Rattled," she answered honestly, as she took a seat, glass in hand. Her fingers were tense on the fine glass. "As if I were on the edge of some precipice, and you were going to lift me up, or damn me to the abyss." More truth than he might have wanted, perhaps, and not the exact truth, anyway, so she shook her head minutely. "As if I might be about to do either of these myself."

"Rattled's fair. I'd be more worried if you weren't, I think. It's a lot all at once." It had been for him, not that he'd gotten all the revelations at once that she got today.

"But you and I've been on one edge or another since we met. I don't feel like damnation's at the end of this one, though."

"It feels like a different edge," Vanessa confirmed, holding his gaze. "But I don't know whether to trust myself anymore."

"I'd ask if you trust me, but as inconsistent as I can be at time, that might not be the best idea." Although he'd been pretty focused with her. Sharper. One of those edges they kept dancing on.

Vanessa frowned slightly, then shook her head. She could not trust him anymore than she could trust herself. "You have seen what happens when I misstep."

"I have," he agreed. It didn't matter he'd 'fixed' that misstep, he had also been a trigger for it.

"And months later, you're still going around locked down tight because of it. You can stay that way, if that's what you want. I'm not in any position to judge, if I ever was."

She had been tempted, truly. But she was forever balanced between swords and cups, and now her mind had taken over. "I can't lose myself to something like that. Or let it out into the world."

Coby had more experience with losing himself than with the evil she was afraid of losing herself to, but it was enough to understand, he thought. So he nodded, and sipped his brandy.

Vanessa set her glass down to pick up another cigarette and light it with no longer trembling hands. She felt more like herself now, and less likely to be swept away. More centered in who she was, but she could still feel the edges of herself threatening to fray, the cups pressing in. "Tell me about your angel," she requested, her gaze less sharp than it might have been, for what she was asking.

"He's lovely." For Coby the word might as well have been Anael's name, and between the two of them, it often was. "And awesome, for all meanings of the word. And he genuinely likes humanity more than most angels, I think. He has a particular fondness for London too. So he visits when he can, or when I need him."

"And you needed him," Vanessa prodded gently. Memories came back, now made clearer. "He was the one I - he - he was talking about."

"The way I remember it," and memory was always a tricky thing with Coby, but this he remembered, "Talking about Anael was where he made his mistake. I don't know if I could've driven him out otherwise."

"Then I'm thankful he misstepped," Vanessa stated, crossing an arm over her chest as if to hug herself. Her gaze had drifted to the side, and now she looked back at Coby. "What is it like? Being with an angel?"

"So am I." Coby didn't like to think what might've happened if he hadn't been pushed to the point he could do what he did.

"I wouldn't say being with Anael is the same as being with any angel. A lot of them are assholes... I think. I don't really remember, and I haven't much experience with any of the others, in this lifetime. But being with him, it's amazing. My... dark times don't seem so present when I'm with him." Coby grinned, but he was serious not smug when he added, "And the sex is seriously hot."

That was so far from what Vanessa was asking that she frowned and, from having leaned in slightly, straightened up again, then reached for her pack of cigarettes, and pulled out another one. "I could read for you again," Vanessa offered, in case he wanted it. "Without letting myself get in the way." She had, this time.

It was all relevant, in Coby's opinion, and how Anael made him feel could be hard to put into words beyond the obvious. "Maybe I'll introduce you sometime, when he's around," he suggested instead. She could use some time with Anael, he thought.

Reading his cards had been her idea to start with, and Coby wasn't sure. "What sort of thing you do expect to find out if you do?"

"That depends on you," Vanessa answered, or rather it did if she managed to keep herself out of the equation. Right then, she felt like she could.

"Anything that depends on me stands a good chance of going sideways." Coby tried to smile, but it was too wry to really work. "We've maybe done enough of that for awhile, don't you think?"

Vanessa nodded in acceptance of his refusal. "It is your choice."

The first time they met, they'd danced on knife edges until they plummeted, in both good and bad ways. Today, though, was more the opposite, skirting the edge and then backing away.

Probably safer that way.

"Another time. When we're both more comfortable in our skin maybe."

Vanessa smiled at that, the smile of one without much hope, but who appreciated the sentiment. "I hope you can find that."

Coby knew that look. He'd been that hopeless, and worse. But it was hard to lose all hope when you had an angel's love. So he just smiled, a tiny nod to go with it. "So do I."

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