Surf's up, School's out

[serpentinthegarden]

Who: Crowley and OPEN - (Now with bonus August Adventure)
What: A demon getting used to school, meeting new people, going to class... what could go wrong? 
Where: In and about the Academy (August Catchall)
When: First day of class
Warnings: Bit of cursing here and there

Room 666
The shades were drawn but only enough so that the light streamed into the room through a narrow slit, brightening the center of the room but leaving the corners rather dark and secluded. That car was still out there. He couldn't make out who was in the driver's seat... if indeed there was anyone in the driver's seat at all... but it had been following him. He thought it had been following him anyway. Maybe it was a mistake?
Maybe every one in this place drove silver DeLorean's. He was too suspicious to be that gullible!

Crowley stood near the window peering out past the curtains, glaring at the stalkers car, fully content to watch it as long as it took to find out who was following him... that is until there was a knock on his door which necessitated his sauntering over to answer it. Now whether the knock had been on purpose or accidental he leaned on the frame and looked over the person in the hall.

"If you are selling I have all the paper and quills I will ever need... Maybe if you try the next door down? And knock really loud," he added for just that extra touch of demonic mischief to incite the maximum level of disturbance to his new neighbor, "They are a bit hard of hearing."


First Class
Crowley came to class on that first day in typical style. He was late and wearing his stylish outfit from home instead of his assigned uniform. He made a grand production of taking a seat at the back of the classroom and propping up his feet on the back of the desk chair in front of him... very nearly on top of the head of the student sitting at that desk.

Intimations class. Crowley had no idea what that was, barely looked at the syllabus when one was passed around to him, and was more focused on constructing a few paper wads to fling at the other student in the next row over... until the instructor demonstrated one of the spells they would be learning in the class by reciting a prayer to the God of Love. Then his demonic outcry would be heard echoing throughout the school.

"NGK!!! What the Heaven... What kind of class is this?!"

With a prayer and a gesture by an irate instructor who had had enough Crowley would find himself unceremoniously magically teleported out of the classroom for being too much of a disturbance. He is bound to reappear; falling from the air, crashing into your dorm bed, splashing down in the middle of a pool... feel free to run into him anywhere.


Escape
He was outside in a flash, hopping down the cement steps and taking off across the lawn in long-legged gate.

"No, no, no, no, no! This is ridiculous! I can't be in that kind of class! Or have that kind of magic!"

Fear and uncertainty manifested itself as anger and he hissed to himself as he fled the school building.

"It has to be a mistake or..."

With a fierce glare he staggered back to snark at the sky.

"Some great big pissing joke!"

He knows you are up there God and just laughing your ass off about this! There would be no answer of course, there never was. There was only the interminable silence and the fear that this was all some how ineffable.


August Adventure - Panic At The Fresco

Renowned artist Brank Cee just finished his latest masterpiece -- only for a sudden Valhudor flash mob to erupt just as he hung it up to dry! Now he's over here, the piece is over there, and the lead actor has come within a hair's breadth of skewering it with his sword prop three different times in one duel alone! He can't get through the crowd to recover it, let alone the performance. Oh please, rescue his painting and he will reward you!

Lounging on a bench Crowley looked up at the panicked artist, then over to the flash mob, then laid right back down where he had been .

"Why not just walk over there and get it yourself? Yea, yea, yea... you are afraid of getting conscripted to the play."

It did seem like they were pulling people in from all over. Willing and not-so willing participants either joined in with the song and dance or sulked angrily in the background.

"I don't know why you think I want to get caught up in it either."

Besides, like a flicker of flame springing to life, he suddenly had a better idea one he sat bolt upright for.

"Why not leave the painting where it is? So it gets skewered! All you need is a crowd of people watching and you could make a bundle off those bits of painting fragments still hanging in the frame. Call it performance art! They will see you as a genius."


 

Comments

Escape

[creepyoldguy]

Beetlejuice was lounging on the lawn in a striped beach chair, sipping a Mai Tai, with his shoulder angel holding a miniature version in her little hands, perched on his shoulder. He pulled his sunglasses down to look at the newcomer shouting at the sky.

"Hi there! Want a Mai Tai?"

Look, this was a study break. He'd go back to class in a minute or thirty.

[serpentinthegarden]

Here he was standing in the middle of the lawn and seething up at a God who wasn't paying attention or at least not bothering to respond and he was being offered a Mai Tai??! Heavens yes, he wanted a Mai Tai! He NEEDED one after the morning he had experienced!

Crowley swaggered over, still wearing a disgruntled snarl, and not trusting himself to say a whole lot held out his hand for a drink.

"Hit me. Make it a double..."

[creepyoldguy]

"You got it, chief!" Beetlejuice rasped cheerfully, snapping his fingers and providing a ready-made extra-strong Mai Tai in Crowley's hands, complete with a little striped black and white umbrella.

"Academics get to ya?"

[serpentinthegarden]

The Mai Tai was sipped at first, then finding it to his liking he downed a good couple of gulps of the brew before settling in under the shade of a nearby tree.

"Some one in the administration cocked up my class schedule. Had to of. I should be conjuring massive walls of flame or summoning something dark and creepy not... that!"

More of the drink disappeared and once he was feeling good and numb he gave his companion's very relaxed, vacation mode, lounging a looking over.

"You never made it to a class?"

First Class

[letteropener]

"Aigh!"

When the water finally fell out of the air, leaving a demon plunked down in the fountain, it also left behind a freshly-soggy alicorn. With her mane plastered over one eye, she looked terribly bedraggled for about the first couple feet; her hindquarters were perfectly dry, tail drifting innocently in no breeze at all.

The visible eye squinted open. "Ah, are you all right?"

[serpentinthegarden]

He was wet, scared, and inclined to express these feelings in a demonic rage... until he looked up and saw himself staring into the eyes of a unicorn. Actual fricking unicorn! Not a unicorn trapped in a human body but four hooves, horn, and bonus set of wings!

If he were inclined to think such undemonic thoughts he might have thought she was gorgeous.

"You're a unicorn."

Clearly it was time to state the obvious while not coolly at all staring at her with a gaping mouth.

[letteropener]

"Not quite -- I am an alicorn."

She spread her wings to their royal half-rest, at the same time tossing her head back to light up her horn. The golden glow swept down her, drying her off and bringing her mane back to life.

"Would you care for some help?"

[serpentinthegarden]

"I don't need any help."

With a flick on a drenched sleeve he moved to the lip of the fountain and tried to pull himself out, only to slip on the wet tiles which lined the splash basin and to fall right back in.

"Maybe... I could use a hoof."

First Class

[smilingarmor]

Sylvando was on his way to Sundering when all of a sudden, a certain demon appeared out of thin air and fell unceremoniously into a nearby bush. Shaking his head in amusement, he walked over to offer Crowley a hand up if he needed it. "That was quite an entrance, Crowley darling," he said. "Getting into trouble already? Or just having a bit of fun that didn't turn out quite as planned?"

[serpentinthegarden]

"Mmmmfk."

Crowley grumbled as his tail was currently up over his head and turning himself right side up required feats of flexibility that would have impressed a contortionist. Only when he was the right side round again did he glare up at Sylvando from underneath one of the branches of bush.

"Who are you calling darling? I'm not darling, nothing I do is darling, just ask the teacher who kicked me out of class."

[smilingarmor]

Sylavndo waved off the comment about his nicknaming habits. "Oh, you know I say that sort of thing to everyone," he said, offering Crowley a hand up from the bush. "Though it's good to know being brought to another world hasn't rendered you any less your usual charming self. Getting magically ejected on the first day may be a new record for you though. Dare I ask what you did? Maybe turn in a rude limerick as a writing assignment, or hit the teacher's back one too many times with a magic pea shooter?"

[serpentinthegarden]

"General disruption and mayhem. I think I might also have said something especially scathing about the subject matter. Professors don't care much for swearing or... shouting loud enough to disturb the rest of the class."

He took the offered hand up but very nearly hesitated to do so when this stranger made it sound like they were old friends. Had they met? Crowley was sure he might have remembered some one calling him darling...

"You are another one of those who has met me before?"

There were two others he could think of who were in the same club. Aziraphale, who apparently had met other Crowley's on his planet hopping adventures. And Alec, who must have met him before! He knew too much not to!

Escape

[scotch_egg]

"Oh yes, shout a lot, that will solve the problem." Alec is sitting nearby at a stone table, a stack of books near his elbow and one open in front of him. Nearby a whip shaped like a big black dog chases geese, its barks like sharp cracks. Alec himself looks tired but that's nothing new, but he barely glances up at An-- Crowley as he speaks.

"Bad day?"

[serpentinthegarden]

"Bad day?"

He whirled on the studious man sitting there with his books and... odd demonic string of a dog... with eyes of fire and the snarl to match.

"Oh, I'd say it was a bad day. I went to class, pissed the teach off so much she kicked me out on the first day..." A beat, "I'm actually proud of that bit," Because of course he is, "But the magic... They actually expect me to do that kind of magic!"

[scotch_egg]

Now he did look at him, chin on the heel of his hand, thoroughly unimpressed and looking like he needed a years worth of sleep.

"Poor pitiful you, forced to learn magic. Unless it involved whips and chains and some kind of dungeon, I don't see what the problem is."

[serpentinthegarden]

"It would be better if it did involve whips and chains! Hell is a dungeon, of sorts... bit drippy basementy in places..."

At least that was familiar and not something whose back had turned on him centuries past.

"This class..."

He shook his head as he stepped over a length of noodle-dog to stalk closer.

"It's all about supplication. Bowing and scraping and hoping anyone up there is actually going to listen to anyone down here!"

Room 666

[protectiveink]

Rosh was in room 665, and counted herself lucky.

Still, she shoved her head out of her room door and stared up towards her neighbors. The door to 666 had just closed, and so the enterprising student with an armful of parchment and a knapsack of quills was moving towards 667.

She wasn't sure how she'd been spared, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Closing her door so that it was just open a mere crack, she peered through it to see how the kid would fare at 667. He did knock, so he got credit for that. But so far, things were silent in the hall. So Rosh waited.

She might be waiting for a while, but that was fine by her.

[serpentinthegarden]

The man had said those in the room next door were hard of hearing so when the first round of knocking went unanswered the kid waited a minute and then gave the wooden door of room 667 a good deafening pounding. It was so loud that everyone on the floor could hear it and it was soon followed up by an even louder yell.

"IS ANYONE IN THERE?! I AM SELLING QUILLS AND BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES!! A FEW COINS IS ALL IT NEEDS!!!"

The laughter from room 666 wasn't nearly as loud but it was still ever present as Crowley had successfully disturbed the studying of everyone on the floor.

[protectiveink]

"I dinna think anyone's in there right now, lad," Rosh said, peeking out from her door. "An' I'm sorry I can't help ye, I already got me own supplies."

Anyone who was present, hard of hearing or not, had probably heard that bellow, but honestly, Rosh had to give him credit for his resolve. Once her ears stopped ringing, at least.

There was only so much studying Rosh could do, anyway, before her brain threatened to ooze out her ears, so honestly, she was fine. So far a certain someone was getting away with it. Though she did scowl at Haage's particular chuckling in the back of her mind.

"Bloody demons," she groused, before pulling back into her room.

666

[temptationaccomplished]

[ooc: so you can do angelic inspiration? feel free to have them go elsewhere if you want this not to not take place in his room or something]

"Crowley, open the door."

He shifted the small potted houseplant in his arms and knocked again, growing mildly annoyed at his own sense of propriety that he couldn't just barge into Crowley's new residence. It would be rude. Even if it would make things easier. After all, he knew Crowley was in there, and in the event Crowley was setting up some ridiculous scheme to tempt the students, it wasn't unsportsmanlike to get the jump on thwarting one's long-time no-longer-enemy with a surprise entrance. Just keeping him on his toes!

Except they lived in a society and society functioned on manners and rules and it would be rude.

[serpentinthegarden]

[ [ OOC: Nah, his room works fine. ^^ ] ]

Crowley's eyes stayed plastered on the vehicle outside, only sparing a fleeting glance towards the door when he heard the knocking. Until the angel spoke up that could have been anybody! He backed away from the window, still watching it like that car might come through the glass at any second, until he was too far away to actually see outside. All of his attention then turned towards the door and the angel on the other side. The door was held open for his oldest and dearest friend and his plus one plant to enter.

"Aziraphale. You could have just opened the door and come in."

Leave it to a demon to suggest the rude approach even as he stood aside and politely gestured for Aziraphale to enter. The angel would have to slide past a mound of books on the end table but the rest of the room was highly orderly. This most uncharacteristic of collections included: Draconic Knowledge, Astronomy, Osmarius, and the highly out of character, Intimation.

"Taking a study break?"

[temptationaccomplished]

He gave Crowley a Look. No, he most definitely could not just open the door and come in. He had not been previously invited!

Used to navigating past books in his own place, and a great many more of them at that, he shuffled past the books and looked around for a place to set the plant before finally deciding to hold it out in offering to Crowley. No fancy presentation, just a small gift. "You could say that. I thought I would bring a much overdue housewarming gift, as well as that promised room key--" His thoughts were distracted as he took proper notice of the books and their titles. "Have you actually been studying??"

First Class

[textbookcase]

Harley had to admit, the guy who suddenly fell from... The ceiling...? onto her desk certainly looks a good deal more interesting than whatever the teacher's going over. You'd think a gal would've learned a thing or two about Interesting People, though... Anyway.

Harley blinks a couple of times at Crowley, then smiles a little as she states, "Well, that was some neat magic."

[serpentinthegarden]

"Yeah..."

Crowley grunted painfully as he slid from her desk to the floor. Landing on a sturdy wooden desk was not on his recommendation list for soft landing places.

"Just... Professor giving a sundering example..."

[textbookcase]

"What, did they use you as a guinea pig?" Harley asked, tilting her head to the side.