5135/The Librarian: Passing on the News

The Librarian: Passing on the News
Date of Scene:	09 August 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	John calls Willow to the House of Mystery to fill her in on what Cas told him. She is very Willow-y about the whole thing.
Cast of Characters:	Constantine, Willow Rosenberg
Tinyplot:	The Librarian

---

Constantine has posed:
As it turned out John /did/ remember what Castiel had told him the night before. Which was impressive, since he couldn't remember how many boiler makers the two had consumed before the pub closed. His guess was between a lot and a bloody shit ton. So, when John makes the call to Willow to come by the house, he's looking pretty rough and nursing a bit of the hair of the dog. However he has enough of his facilities to make sure the House knows he's extending an invitation before collapsing into one of the easy chairs in his sitting room to wait for the red-haired witch to arrive.

The invitation means the usual veil over the house parts, when Willow draws near, letting her find the gate in the fence. The fact there was now grass out front, strewn with wildflowers was entirely the House' doing.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow actually didn't believe who the call was from when she first got it. Who called, anyway? There was text, wasn't there? And gosh, wasn't he magic? Couldn't he twiddle his fingers and just summon her or something like that?

Of course Willow did magic, and she couldn't just twiddle her fingers and summon someone, so there was that. Only she didn't follow the logic.

However, it was John. And an invitation. And while not exactly certain what he wanted, Willow was sure it was important, or if not important, at least had something to do with her lessons, right?

She found the place easily enough, walking down the street counting house numbers until she hit John's place, noting while looking at it that it was a rather huge place and how did it fit on this street? Only, when she looked around, the space it occupied seemed reasonable enough, and in keeping with the rest of the neighbourhood, which left Willow slightly puzzled, but not so worried about it that it kept her from pushing open the gate and traipsing up the walkway.

"He even has flowers!" she exclaims as they're noticed. A smattering of wildflowers against the house, and lining the walkway as it draws up to the door. Which distracts her while she picks a handful of daisies, forgetting for the moment that her host might not appreciate her absconding with a posy from his gardens. No help for it now, she's already picked them.

Which leaves a very sheepish looking Willow knocking on John's door.

Constantine has posed:
The door in question, a big Addam's Family looking job, with a brass doorknocker in the shape of a demon's head, gripping the knocking ring intensely in it's jaws. Before the knocker strikes the wood, the door creeks open, revealing a little of what's inside.

Willow had been there before, if briefly, while escaping the chaos demon, but, with more time to spare, the entry way can be examined fully. It looks like something ripped from the pages of a gothic horror novel. As if there might be a tell-tale heart under the floorboards or some old enemy of a former owner of the house bricked up in the cellar. More than that though, there was something off about the dimensions, the room inside the door couldn't possibly fit the house on the outside. Indeed, the ceiling seems to stretch to the heavens, and the upper floors, are clad in shadow. It's odd, though as the door opens, the oil lamps flicker to life, alerting John of his visitor.

"Willow, is that you?" he calls getting up from his chair. "Let me walk you in proper. The house likes to play it's tricks sometimes."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
She'd been there before, but not entered the more conventional way. However, as creepy as the door opening on its own was, the hallway was.. well, okay, it wasn't reassuring. The whole Gothic aura.. not really Willow's favourite. It usually went hand in hand with demons. Or spellcasters with a distinct lack of morals and ethics.. and Willow just stopped herself there and shook her head.

"Oh golly, that's just Mr.. er, John, isn't it?" Startling when the man himself speaks from some unkown depths of the house.

Willow shoves the daisies behind her back. "I wasn't touching anything," she insists. "You did say to come, right? And the door was open. I swear, I didn't even touch it. It just opened, and oh gosh, I should have waited, I'm sorry, but it swung open and then it was like a scene out of Sophmore Haunts VI - This Time Hair Gets Messy...."

She babbles until John shows up.

Constantine has posed:
Dragging his ass from the sitting room John pushes a hand through the tangles of his blonde hair as he makes his way over. Two doors appear in the walls cracking open on their own like the front door did. Bright light spills from one, darkness the other.

John sighs.

"Don't you start with that," he warns the House looking upwards. "My guest remember."

The doors petulantly close.

"Better," John says coming to a stop before a babbling Willow. "Yeah, I gave you a call and don't care if you touch anything, just don't go opening any doors but that one," he says pointing to the front door. "Like to end up in some dimension where people walk on the ceiling and talk with the feet or some such," he oddly sounds like he's speaking from experience.

"Anyhow, c'mon, I'll take you to the safe part of the house. Found some information you and the Scoobies might want to hear about."

John leads the way back to the sitting room.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow attempts a weak smile. "Have you ever thought of opening a window?"

She carefully follows along behind John, being certain to stay mid-hallway and not touch anything, remembering belatedly, her flowers, which she thrusts out at him. "Look, I picked you some daisies. Well, okay, I didn't pick them for you, but they came from your front, so I kind of feel like I should at least see if you want them or not."

She peers at the cluster, and pulls one from the ranks in her fist. "Except this one. I want this one. But the others you can have. And why do you live in such a creepy place anyway?"

Constantine has posed:
"Windows don't always open to the outside world either," John explains as he leads the way into the sitting room. It was a touch dingy, but in all relatively comfortable, the high back leather chairs by the fire seem new and comfortable.

When presented with the purloined flowers, he smiles, "Keep 'em," he says good naturedly as he wanders to the sideboard, he picks up a bottle, "Lemonade?" he asks. "The regular sort, not the kind with vodka. A mate of mine makes them at his bar, bloody well to die for," he says, grabbing a bottle for himself with his free hand.

"An' why do I live here? Won the place in a bet, or the House chose me to win it in a bet, either way, it's mine until someone else comes a long that needs it more. Besides, it's got a killer library," he says with a grin.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow finds a perch she deems is *likely* safe, and nods at John until he gets to the bit about vodka in lemonade. "They make it like that? Really?" As though he were pulling her leg or something. "Uh, sure. Lemonade would be spiffy, thanks."

Her cheerful smile returns. "They were just growing there. I guess I kind of forgot it wasn't my place and I probably shouldn't pick them.."

She catches herself. "Oh, I'm sorry. You actually invited me here for a reason. I've been practicing my incantations like you said, but I don't think I can make myself sound as threatening as you do."

Willow shivers at the memory of John's demonstration.

Constantine has posed:
"Yeah, since the 90's," John says sagely of the lemonaid. "Keep forgetting you lot don't get to partake for another couple of years here," he says shaking his head at the abject barbarism of it. "Anyhow, this is the other kind," he says offering the Lemonade to Willow.

"Like I said, don't worry about the flowers," he says. "House makes 'em grow when she wants, guess it's her welcome mat, sure she wanted you to have them."

Of course, being of the house they could be used to help find it in the future.

"Right, almost forgot, ever here of a bloke or a bird going by The Librarian? An' no, I don't mean Giles."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow happily takes her lemonade, sipping it, and making the requisite face at the sour-sweet of it. "Librarian? You mean like New York Public Library?"

Of course Willow had heard of that, but she was pretty sure that wasn't what John meant.

"Not really, no. But we've been doing a lot of moving in... Should we have heard of this person?"

Constantine has posed:
"For all I know they could work their, but my guess is he or she is some sort of broker in mystical tomes, an' they're after a nasty one. An' old mate of mine's got me wise to it, and figured we ought to stop that before he gives us another apocalypse to stop."

Okay maybe John might not have been around for the apocalypse stopping the Scoobie's have done, but he's read Giles' watcher journals on the Khazi, and so, he was aware of the tales.

"Wondering if you might be able to do some of your techno-scrying to find this wanker so we can head the book off before they get it," John elaborates.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow listens, looking quite serious as John goes on, bandying about the word Apocalypse, already not liking where this conversation was going.

"Sure, I can look him up on my -" Willow stops, and considers. One hand is holding lemonade. The other is perched upon the daisies rested on her knees. No laptop in sight. "Oh, well. You didn't say to bring my laptop. I guess I'll have to look when I get home. But do you know anything else about this person?"

Brain already working through thoughts of mystical tomes, and shady underworld buyers and sellers.

Constantine has posed:
There is a ghost of a smirk when Willow realizes she's left her laptop at home. He says, "No worries, but do it right off, want to get to the Librarian before they get the book." As to what else he might have to offer, he shakes his head.

"Nah, that's all my mate had," he says. "But the book's called "A History of Angels", and it's from the Library of Alexandria, if that'll help with your mojo."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow's frown remains. "Just how bad can a book called 'A History of Angels' be?"

She nods, though, at the matter of checking it out soon as possible. She wasn't exactly sure why she'd not thought to bring her laptop with her. It was odd.

"So am I looking for the book, or the Librarian, or both?"

Silly question, Willow - both. But which John wanted to know about first might matter.

Constantine has posed:
"It's a trick, they called it something mundane in order to fool people into thinking that's what it was," John explains. "Not a bad trick really, but trust me, you don't want folks reading from it if half of what my mate says about it is true."

That bit he was fuzzy on, what it did, but if an angel said it was bad news, then John was willing to take it on faith... so to speak.

"The book's the important bit, but if we can find this Librarian, it might be useful information to have," John says, because in his line of work a dealer in rare mystical books always came in handy.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"So a little bit of both," Willow murmurs, nodding to herself. "Likely there's word out somewhere. Good thing people like that don't use the most kosher of channels to go looking for stuff. Makes it a lot easier for me, really."

Which was true. She could eliminate a lot of white noise, so to speak, just by knowing she wouldn't have to be scouring the legitimate sites of the internet. However, the fact that the book might have other names was going to make it a bit trickier.

"He only gave you the one name, your friend? For the book, I mean."

Constantine has posed:
John nods along at Willow's explanation. "Well, as long as it helps," he says, though he got the gist of her meaning. Shady folks would be using shady channels and so the stuff on the clean ones could be ignored. Or at least, that was his take.

"I can do a bit of asking myself, but given how you did with that Georgian Creed's business, well, figured I'd give you first crack at it," he says.

"Yeah, just the one," he says. "Not sure if it's the only one it's had or not, but sounds like it was the one it had when they burned that bloody Library so, it's had it for a good long while now." Like most of those who read, the burning of the Library irked him somewhat, even if it was centuries ago.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow tilts her head slightly to one side, "You realize they didn't have the Dewey decimal system back then, or index cards, right? It's not like I can look up a roster of what was in the library at Alexandria and go from there..."

At which point Willow stops herself. Couldn't she? Could she? Was it actually possible? She hadn't tried anything like that. Technically all of the scrying she did with her laptop was impossible.

"Let me get back to you on that one." A nod. "That's it, then? A book. A shady figure calling themself the Librarian. Anything else?"

Constantine has posed:
John smiles watching the gears turn behind Willow's eyes. For all the greybeards might go on about power, that was the true measure of how dangerous a finger-waggler like them could be. A working mind. Power was wasted if you didn't have a mind to set it to task, and well, Willow it seemed had both, for good or for ill.

He really hoped it was the former.

"Do that," he says of getting back to him.

"Nah, that's about it. He wasn't very forthcoming until we were a few boiler makers in, so, I might make a second run at him for more information when we're both sober, but for now, that's what we've got. Think it'll be enough?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
There's a tsk of near disgust from Willow. "You didn't say you were still... you know." She couldn't quite bring herself to say 'drunk' like it was some sort of dirty word akin to 'having sex' or 'making out' about to tumble from her lips.

Her lemonade finnished, the girl holds her glas out to John and gets up from her seat. "Uh.. so texting works, right? To get back to you. I mean, I won't blab or anything. Just a call me or something to let you know I found something. And I should let Buffy know, right? And Faith? Or were you wanting to grab us all together." That was supposing John's 'friend' had more information, and John remembered any of it.

Constantine has posed:
John can't help but smile at the way she looks at him when he mentions he and his friend were *gasp* drunk. And to think he worried about her going dark sometimes. "Drunk? An' I was when you got here, now I'm definitely heading towards a killer hangover," he says taking the glass and then moving over to the sidetable to find some aspirin.

"Yeah, I text, even have a cellphone with all the fancy do-dads," he says. "An' yeah I'll be wanting a word with Faith and Buffy an' the rest. But if you want to spread the word ahead of time, don't hold back. Sooner we have people looking the better."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
There's a distinct possiblity tht Willow could help with that hangover, and truthfully, a small portion of her wonders if she shouldn't offer. But there's also a very larege portion of her stomping a mental foot and saying he deserved what he got if he was off sitting in bars till all hours drinking like an idiot like that... Harumph!

"I'll let you know what I find, then. And let them know we need a meeting." Buffy she'd even give details too. Okay, Faith as well. Who was Willow kidding. She'd tell them both.

Constantine has posed:
"Splendid," John says as he dry swallows a couple of aspirin and grimaces as they go down. "Appreciate you working the Scooby phone tree," he says. "When you've found them we'll rally at the Magic Box, to talk plans. All of Giles' stuff's there now, seems the place to do it."

Sure, the House is big, warded and packed full of magical goodies, but it had its own complications.

"If the House were behaving I'd point you at the door home, but for now," he digs into his pocket producing a couple rumpled twenties, "Here's money for a cab."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow quite happily takes the money, and gets almost to the door of the room before turning and admitting with a sigh, "I was going to take the bus and the subway. I don't really need all this for that."

Even if that second twenty was screaming chocolate croissants and a latte at her.

Reluctantly Willow offers one of the twenties back to John.

Constantine has posed:
John shakes his head. Yeah, no danger of the dark lurking there. "Take it," John says pressing the other twenty back into the witch's palm. "Splurge on a cab, buy some more smudging sticks," he says. "Go wild."

Besides it was all sort of hazy, but he was pretty sure he'd lifted the money he had off some hedge wizard at the pub. Or maybe it was a bet.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow's eyes widen and she looks girlishly pleased. There's a moment of impulse where she throws her arms about John and kisses his cheeck before scurrying off for home. Visions of croissants, lattes, /and/ smudging sticks running through her head.