[Outside World]

[john_ofdarkness]

At first glance, the room is like any other--a door that opens off to the second-floor hall, another door set into the right wall, a window with the curtains drawn almost completely together. In his perennial search for cigarettes, the room appears to bear little consideration.

The gap between the curtains catches John's eye, and he draws in a slow and shaking breath.

He closes the door behind him, then throws the curtains wide open; he half-expects to see the grounds, the trees, the walls of the Mansion curving in on themselves ... but instead, he sees a neat little chain-link fence and a line of identical two-story houses. The sight makes him laugh, that startled, honest laugh that sounds half-foreign on his lips. "Jesus Christ," he says to himself, low; "I'm in suburbia."

John swings open the second door, taking note of the address as he goes. Wherever he is, there's got to be a convenience store somewhere in the area--and he's dying for a few cartons of cigarettes.

Comments

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

*Buzz emerges from the house next door. he doesn't notice John at first, but then he does a double take* John?

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*a mirrored double-take--although he recovers more quickly* Buzz.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

What are you doing here?

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

Buying cigarettes. *goes over and leans on the fence, purely because the parody of suburban neighborliness amuses him* Yourself?

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

Living. James wanted a place in the country.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

Which you helpfully redefined as the suburbs, rather than--say--upstate New York.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

Upstate? What are we, barbarians?

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* Or out of your minds; Gregory lost his readily enough.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

*wry smile* That, we might be.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

How's the real world, then?

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

You mean you're still in that- the Mansion?

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*dry* My, you're quick on the uptake.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

Well. We'd been wondering if we'd imagined the whole thing.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

Not a useful line of thought, duck. If you start asking that, you'll begin to wonder whether anything has been real. *shrugs* I'll probably go back, once I've found something to smoke.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Still with the fictional Russian, hm?

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*a beat* You never really understood that you hated me, did you.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

...what? When?

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

Ever since you got over me. *thoughtfully* All of you hated me, and I was foolish enough to think that I could make you like me--I was never ambitious enough to aim to be loved, but I thought that at least you could like me.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

Where is this coming from?

Typist: Sorry for the delay - Firefox is being stupidly slow. :P

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*almost laughing* You really don't understand. I'm done with you. That's where it's come from--I'm done with all of our real-world bullshit. If that place is a dream, I'm not interested in waking up.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

*still a little bewildered by all this* And I respect that.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*straightening* I'm sorry. *isn't, really, but he follows the conventions of courtesy* I'm not speaking clearly--never expected to be back here.

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

That, I understand. *pauses* We're cured, you know. James and I.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

*raises a brow* Magic?

[notsincecarrie.livejournal.com]

Or something like it. We'd been talking to an angel...