Mauvaise Chance Apartments, Wednesday Morning

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

It was cloudy out, but still warm, so Ellie relocated from her apartment to outside the building, sitting on the front lawn with her laptop and several books, writing up her syllabus for the fall semester. With Pluto's recent demotion she was left puzzling over how to wrap up the outer edge of the solar system.

[ooc: open to neighbors or anyone passing by!]

Comments

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

After their leisurely breakfast, Wilson had sent Aziraphale off to amuse himself while the young doctor settled into some unpacking. The angel's offer to do it himself had been cheerfully rebuffed, with the insistance that there wasn't much to unpack and it would give Wilson a sense of the place being 'home'.

So Aziraphale took some time to check out the apartment building, making a foray up to the roof -- and noting that it seemed both spacious and somewhat private -- before wandering back down to see the grounds.

When he came upon the young woman on the lawn, he stopped and smiled. "Good day, my dear."

[ooc: Might fall into SP, as I am at work. ;)]

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie looked up at the newcomer. "Good morning!" she said, smiling. "Are you one of the new building residents?" She stood up and offered her hand. "I'm Ellie Arroway."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Arroway," he replied, taking her hand. "Yes, I'll be sharing one of the apartments on the third floor with James Wilson. He arrived before me, so perhaps you've already met him? Oh, and my name's Aziraphale. I know it's something of a mouthful, you're quite welcome to shorten it if you like."

Aziraphale smiled warmly, very pleased to be meeting one his neighbors already. "Are you a teacher?" he asked, nodding toward the laptop.

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes, I met Dr. Wilson the other morning," Ellie said. She made a mental note about two less eligible bachelors in town, guessing just how "sharing" the sharing was.

"I'm teaching astronomy up at the school," she went on to confirm. "If I can just keep the skies free of pudding this semester. . . ."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"Pudding....?"

That sounded like there was probably a very Fandomesque story attached to it. Aziraphale raised an eyebrow and instinctively glanced upward. Nope, just regular old clouds. He wondered if there was some version of the apocalypse that called for pudding skies as one of the signs.

"It appears that I'll be teaching as well. Although I'm not quite certain yet as to the subject. It was rather, er...arranged in advance."

Mental note: find out once and for all whether it's prophecies or properties.

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Arranged in advance?" Ellie asked. "The school hasn't let you know what you'll be teaching? Isn't it hard to make a lesson plan that way?"

She followed Aziraphale's gaze upward and grinned. "Pudding. Chocolate. It rained from the skies one day. I'm still not exactly sure why, but it cleared up in time for my class, at least."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"Lesson plan?" Obviously there were things to this teaching gig that Aziraphale hadn't really thought out. "Er...well, yes, I suppose it is. But I intend to drop by the school and talk to them about it."

Of course, once he found out all the pertinent information, a lesson plan would probably make its way into existance on his office desk. There were perks to being an angel.

It was the whole rain-of-pudding thing that got him, though. "Only in Fandom," he sighed, shaking his head and smiling. "I suppose, as long as it isn't too much trouble to clean up, we can deal with almost anything. We had a bit of trouble with self-multiplying avocados last time I was here. Those were a bugger to get rid of."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Self-multiplying avocados?" Ellie said with a laugh. "I'm not sure I want to know. But it would fit in with what I've seen here so far." She shook her head, still smiling. "I'm a scientist. I tend to believe in only what I see with my own eyes. But this place and some other experiences I've had have opened my eyes."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale laughed. "Once you've spent time in Fandom, my dear, there's very little you won't believe, and not much that will surprise you either. But I suppose the chocolate pudding rain probably proved that."

He looked up toward the third floor of the building, thinking that he'd probably best get back upstairs and help with at least getting rid of the empty boxes.

"I've got to go and make certain James isn't doing all of the unpacking work himself. But it has been lovely meeting you, Miss Arroway. I hope you'll come by some time for tea, or join us for dinner. James always makes far too much food, and the door is nearly always open for guests."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Thank you very much for the invitation," Ellie said. "I'll be sure to take you up on it. I'm in apartment #9 -- one of the ones with the easiest access to the roof." She grinned. "Had to have a place to set up my telescope, after all."

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"I believe ours is #8 -- I really should check on that for certain. But I expect you'll be seeing me on the roof from time to time as well."

He gave Ellie a bright smile, and then headed back into the building.

[dr-jwilsonmd.livejournal.com]

[ooc: pppssst... #4. ;)]

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

[ooc: It totally says #4! Looks like a 4 to me!]

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

[ooc: it says 4, that's what I see!]

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

[ooc: See?! And she's a Scientist. With a telescope, even. ;)]

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse wasn't one to sit around the house, especially not in a new town where he'd be living for at least the next few months. He had Skeeter with him and stopped to greet the pretty young woman sitting outside looking, if not studious, scholarly.

"Good mornin'. I think we might be neighbors."

[ooc: Yes, he's wearing the clerical collar.]

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Good morning . . . father?" Ellie said. "You just moved in?"

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

"Jesse. Or Reverend Custer if you want to be formal." He nodded to his dog who had wandered off to sniff some shrubbery. "That's Skeeter. He ever gives you any trouble, you just let me know."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie found her thoughts drifting to Palmer for a moment, then smiled at Jesse. "I certainly will," she said. "But I'm sure he'll be no trouble. I'm Ellie Arroway. You can call me Ellie."

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

"Nice to meet you, Ellie." He looked down at the books and laptop and made an educated guess, since almost every adult he'd met in this town so far had been a teacher. "Are you teaching up at the high school?"

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Astronomy," she said. "Moons and planets this semester. Next semester I'll branch out of the solar system if there's interest. How about you?"

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse thought about sitting out in the desert with a man who'd been kind enough to take in a stranger, but crazy enough to use dynamite to carve the words "fuck you" into the earth big enough for the space shuttle to read just because he never became an astronaut.

She might not appreciate that as much as he did.

"I'll be teaching World Religions."

[ooc: Just a heads up that I'll be leaving about 9:30 PST and will be gone for about an hour and a half to two hours.]

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"What brings a man of the cloth to a place like this?" Ellie asked. "Other than teaching, I mean. What drew you here?"

[ooc: no problem!]

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse gave her an easy shrug and sat down in the grass near Ellie. "You could say I'm on a bit of a spiritual quest."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie looked at Jesse thoughtfully. "What kind of quest, or is that too personal a question?"

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse looked down at the grass for a minute. Such an amazing thing God had created and then abandoned. He looked back up at her to say, "I'm lookin' for God. I think he owes his creation a reckoning."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"Haven't reverends usually found god already?" Ellie asked, puzzled.

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I got rock solid belief you could build the Empire State on," Jesse said. "I'm lookin' to find him."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

"And ask him why?" Ellie said. "Well, if you find him, let me know. I don't quite believe in god. Well . . . I'm not so sure anymore, I mean."

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

"Like I said, I believe; I didn't say I had faith." Jesse was grim as he said, "I got no faith in God at all."

[stargazer-ellie.livejournal.com]

Ellie cocked her head. "That's a curious attitude to have," she said. "I don't think I've ever met a man of the cloth quite like you."

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Jesse grinned, dropping the stern expression, even if a ghost of it lingered in his eyes. "You'll never meet my like again, either."