7630/Should Have Done this At the Start

Should Have Done this At the Start
Date of Scene:	26 May 2019
Location:	House of Mystery, Avalon Heights
Synopsis:	John and Willow try to figure out the riddle of how to help Superman.
Cast of Characters:	Constantine, Willow Rosenberg

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Constantine has posed:
John had been doing some thinking, yeah, bad habit, har, har, but there he was. Hell he had been more than thinking, he'd caught a little way he knew across the pond through the backstage of the universe to share a pint with Chaz and talk his ear off. Sure, there were phones but some talks you just needed to have face to face with a lukewarm pint in your hand.

Getting back from his old stomping grounds was a much easier affair, call The Door, and step back on through to the House.

"Good to be home," John sighs as he makes his way across the House's cavernous entryway and slumps into one of the sitting room chairs. He pulls out his phone and types up a text:

Wanker >> Hey Willow, you good for a chat?

Wanker >> Damn it. Chaz must have been messing with my phone.

John >> Is it fixed now?

John >> There we go. Anyhow, fancy a chat?

John shakes his head, dreaming up petty revenge for the prank while he waits for the reply.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow gets the text while - as it happens - ensconsed in John's library. Really, is anyone surprised? Books, books, and more books? And she's /supposed/ to be looking at them and learning. Yeah, no brainer there. What's suprising is that she notices the blip of her cell telling her she has a text - and that she answers it.

She almost doesn't, not sure who this 'Wanker' person is, but they've got her name? Then it's John, and it makes mroe sense.

Willow >> I don't think that's a nice word. It's not, right? Who is Chaz? And wow, it only took you two texts to fix everything. That's actually pretty good. Sometimes the settings on these things can be really complicated. Especially if you don't use them very much.

Willow >> Wait, what were we talking about?

Constantine has posed:
John chuckles at the screen texting back:

John >> Not a nice word, no. And chaz is my best mate back in England. Damn near unkillable.

He leaves that train of thought there.

John >> And are you calling me old? I know how to use my phone, plus, I sort of changed his name on his earlier. Anyhow where are you? We should talk.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow makes a face and positively rolls her eyes at John's texts. LIkely a good thing he can't see that.

Willow >> Your friend isn't very nice if he puts bad words on people's phones. What if I were someone religious or something? Or your mom? That's just rude.

Willow >> Wait? Unkillable?

Willow >> Like, someone's tried? Wait - this have anything to do with why you always look like something is going to jump out of the shadows and eat you? Cool. You know, it's really a shame Buffy hasn't had time to spend with you. I bet she'd be all interested in that. Oh! I know! I bet it's something bad, like a ghost. Or.. or.. oh

Willow >> Hey, how come you don't just banish it? Isn't that what you do? And I'm at your place. You told me to research things so I've been researching. And you are old.

More eye rolling.

Willow >> You so deserve what you got if you changed his name. I'd have switched out your sim card. Or made your contacts go to random people. And likely have had your incoming texts scramble as well. You really should be careful who you play pranks on. Not everyone is as nice as I am.

Constantine has posed:
Definitely good John can't see the eye rolling.

John >> Well if I'm texting my mum, then got to get on her carrier, pretty sure mine doesn't get me service in the great beyond. And rude's the point.

He shake his head, eyeing the liquor cabinet for something to drink.

John >> Lot of people tried, it never stuck on old Chaz. As for me, there's always something out looking to settle a score, you get used to it after awhile. I banish the ones that I see coming. And yeah, I'd tote Buffy along but I'd sort of lose my cred letting the Slayer do my fighting for me.

John gets up and heads to the cabinet, only to stop and chuckle when he hears Willow's in the House already.

John >> Then remind me not to let you get my phone.

He leaves off with the booze opting instead to go down the hall to the library, where he pull open the door, greeting Willow with a "Hey," he says taking a moment to scope out the state of the place. "Haven't been camping here while I was away have you?"

With Willow it seemed like a definite possibility.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow >> That's Buffy's job. Besides, you don't fight.

More eye rolling that John likely catches if he enters the library at that moment.

Willow >> Me? Camp here? Uh.. no.

With a guilty little start. It isn't camping if you don't have bedding, right? And naps on the couch ddidn't count. Everybody knew that. It was kind of like chocolate that others gave you as a gift - no calories. Only with sleep.

Willow >> Let me get your phone?

She giggles. Like she would ask. Sheesh. How silly. Followed by another of those guilty starts as she realizes he's /in the room/ - and she just texted him her answer when he'd asked her in person.

"Oh. Hey, you're here. No. I didn't sleep 'here'. I just studied in the library. Maybe stayed late a few times. And you're out of tea."

Constantine has posed:
John's phone continues to buzz and he replies as he closes in on the library.

John >> I can throw a good right hook if I need to

The counter was mostly a joke, he didn't fight, not like Buffy did.

John >> Plus I've got magic, don't need to fight.

John snorts walking into the room and letting the door swing closed behind him. "Well, going to need to fix the tea situation, won't let me back in Britain if I'm out," he jokes lightly. "And didn't sleep here, eh? Where did you sleep then?"

Though with the special broomcloset gate back to Willow and Buffy's he supposed camping out wasn't necessary.

"An' you find any good while I was away?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow scrunches up her face and doesn't answer where she'd slept. At least not immediately. It's almost as if she'd under some geas - involuntarily she goes from stubborn refusal to answer to blurting out, "I didn't sleep in your bed!" As though he'd accused her of that very thing.

"A few things," Willow answers of interesting things. Especially as it lets her change topics. "Just some more references to old gods. Some stuff about possession and mind control. A few things about inscribing tomes."

Fine. She'd gotten sidetracked there as a random mention had tweaked something in her brain about the texts she and Sam were supposed to be looking for. "Oh, and I don't think your idea of reaching our minds back in time is going to work. At least I can't find anything to support that."

Constantine has posed:
John makes his way over to where Willow has set up shop and moving some books off the opposite chair he takes a seat.

"'sright," he says about where she did or didn't sleep. "Though if you're going to make a habit of it, might as well grab yourself a room," he says with a shrug.

As for his daring plan to bravely spy on the ritual, he cocks an eyebrow, "Yeah? You think it won't?" it wasn't a challenge just a question offered in a very amused tone.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow's blinks at John are rather owlish. "You told me not to go anywhere but here, the kitchen, and the livingroom. So I didn't. You specifically said /not/ to open any doors."

She pulls a few books out - slender ones that have crackled brown pages. "This is as close as I could find." There's an impressive pile of books on the table beside her. And around her chair. And under her laptop. It's certain she hasn't even scratched the surface of the library yet. "I can't tell if it's not been tried, or if the attempts were failures."

Constantine has posed:
"Did I?" John asks with a smile. "Must have forgotten. Anyhow, if you want a room I'll get you one. Won't even charge you rent," he smiles as he digs out a cigarette.

John nods, thumbing through the volumes, scanning each page carefully taking note of the text. He's a good deal less drunk than usual, so focus comes easier.

"Yeah, seems like that's all a big quesiton mark," he says of the temporal fold. "I've heard of it being done, but, then you know how ol' warlocks like to gab, like a bloody knitting circle."

He takes the next book and gives it the same treatment. "An' if the whole timey-whimey thing's a no go then, figure we ought to give a go at his mind? See what we can dig up?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow nods absently. "I think there's a bunch of displacement issues. Like your brain is there, but it's also here, so you have to account for your body processing two wavelengths of thoughts at the same time. It could just be that the quantum mechanics of it weren't accounted for highly enough in the past. I'm wondering if you can anchor a statis pattern here like a remote hard drive and then unite and access when the thought engrams are brought back to this timeline. It's kind of dangerous, though. Not just with the possibility of being caught - there will be ripples of displacement in the time-space barriers as well, but if the tether gets snapped or tangled, consciousness could be sent anywhere, really."

She looks thoughtful and begins to type a stream of figures onto her laptop, totally ignoring the matter of a room for the moment.

Constantine has posed:
John takes in Willow's words looking at the witch like she grew another head.

"Come again?" he asks about well pretty much all of it. "Magic is magic yeah? Grab something of the bloke you're going back in time to look at something from where he was, make an offering to the right whatever, and Bob's your mother's brother," John says.

It was like speaking two different dialects of the same language, they both knew magic, how they knew it though was very, very different.

"That last part though, getting unstuck in time, yeah, that's the rub there. Likely end up like what's his name from Quantum Leap."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Huh?" Willow looks up at John, clearly not having heard a word he's just said, other than, "Wait, I kinda do have a room here? I guess I could use that. But you did say not to open any doors or go anywhere but those three places."

Now she really regrets not thinking of that bedroom, as the couch, nice as it was, smelled of whiskey, cigarette smoke, and something undefinable, not to mention it wasn't as comfortable as you might think after a couple nights running.

Constantine has posed:
"Basically luv, we're speaking at each other in each other's language and not a one of us is understanding a thing," John says with a chuckle.

"Figures you'd see it all scienc-y with your computers and what not," he says massaging the spot between his eyes and the bridge of his nose. "Anyhow, what you're saying is, there's a bloody lot of obstacles and the risk of getting cut loose in time, yeah?"

As for the room, "Yeah I did," he says. "But go on and open the door to your room, it's in the safe zone."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow nods slowly. "How do you even magic without thinking about those things?"

Because she just can't imagine.

"And you really don't want to lose your mind. Remember when we were trying to get /him/ back? If they'd broken the connection, we'd have been stuck in one place and everyone else would have been there. We wouldn't have been able to get them back. We needed both parts of the connection - one there, and one here, to keep the corridor open. It's like that. Your mind would be there, but your body here. If that tether is snapped, they can't be united again. You'd be like, like braindead."

Constantine has posed:
"How do you do magic while you /are/ thinking about those things?" John asks deliberately echoing her. "My brain was dribbling out of my ears just listen' to it."

"Yeah, I remember," John says. "An' no, don't want to lose my mind. So, then, what else do we've got to try and learn this ritual of theirs? Since we don't want to end up a pair of empty husks and no good to Big Blue or anyone else."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Not sure," Willow admits. "It would be easy if we had something they used in the ritual. Then we just form a counter ritual and read what comes up. It's not so easy if we have to track the magic down all on our own. Unless they used technology for it.. actually, I didn't think of trying that. I was too busy looking for references to whether we could spy on the ritual."

Constantine has posed:
John had to admit he hadn't thought about the technology side of it. Like Willow he was fixated on the magic side.

"That possible? Figurin' out the ritual from the technology side?" John asks Willow, curious. This wasn't his sort of magic, but it was damned interesting.

Remembering the pack of smokes in his hand he knockes one out and sticks it in his mouth while he waits for an answer.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow ponders thoughtfully, "It's possible. I mean, that's kinda what I do? Use my laptop to scry for things. I haven't used it in quite that way before, but theoretically it should work."

She certainly has enough information to at least begin framing a search around. It was at least worth a shot.

Constantine has posed:
John cocks his head considering that for a moment before he asks, "What would you need to make it work?" he asks, taking a moment to light his cigarette with his finger.

The smoke curls upwards back out over the back of his chair.

"An' is there anything I need to do?"