[Rachel Kester]

Rachel wandered along Knightsbridge, hat perched on her loose blonde curls. She had no real agenda for the day; then again, unless she was summoned by one of the gods above or the gods below to deliver a message to one of their counterparts, she rarely had an agenda. That was sort of one of the effects of immortality; scheduling just became so much less important.

She let her fingertips trail lightly over the merchandise at one of the vendors. Typically she went for the East End when it came to her shopping needs Below, mostly because that was where to find all the clothes and drugs and the fun odds and ends that stuffed her London Above apartment. Today, though, she'd felt like a change. The books Below were so much more interesting than the books Above, and though she'd never been too much of a bookworm, every once in a while she felt the need to sink her teeth--metaphorically, of course, she was an angel, not a vampire--into a good story.

A book with a blue satiny cover caught her eye; the fabric had a lovely, almost golden sheen to it. Whoever said that books shouldn't be judged by their covers was an idiot; covers were pretty, and this one was lovelier than most. The angel picked it up and flipped open the cover, running a finger along the title page. Hmmm... bargain price, too, six pounds and a bob. And even if the story was no good, the cover was pretty enough to make up for it...

Rachel set the book down on the nearest stack and reached into the pockets of her dress for the fistful of crumpled currency she kept there, pulling out the bills she needed. She handed it over and held her hand out to receive the change, but the vendor--damn them!--let go before her hand was quite under it. The coins clattered to the cobbles.

"Ugh, damnation!" she muttered, crouching down to pick the coins up off the ground. Of course, that was her plan until a knee or some other rather solid body part made contact with her shoulder, nearly knocking her over. Rachel put out a hand to steady herself, raising the other hand--fingers curled around the coins held against her palm--to steady her hat, and turned her head up to glare at her assailant. "Oi, d'you mind?" she snapped. "There's someone down here!"

[Delirium]

”…if you would please stop skipping….” The german shepherd panted as he trailed behind the girl, her multi-colored hair flying behind her as she made her way through he crowd, the sounds of her humming an indistinguishable tune causing a few heads to turn. Delirium wasn’t exactly a master of covert operations. Quite the opposite, really. While most of her business outside of her realm took place in the Above, Del had decided that it was a perfectly lovely day to come visit the other side of things.

After several hours of sitting amongst the canaries at the wharf, imagining up multicolor butterflies and generally confusing any passer-by that she spoke to, Del had expressed an interest in finding amusement elsewhere. Now, here she was, skipping her way through a crowd, followed by Barnabas the dog and a few stray butterflies. The overall effect was a little ridiculous, but not entirely out of place Below. Not paying any attention whatsoever, Del found herself nearly tripping over something or someone on the ground.

Not being one to hurt people (intentionally at least), Del felt bad for whatever it was she had done to merit the yelling from the person on the ground. “I’m sorry…are you hurt? Being hurt isn’t fun…I was hurted once and my doggy had to send nice people to rescue me…that wasn’t very nice. Well…it was nice to be gotten. Not to be there.” She looked down at the woman, mismatched eyes sizing her up. “Do you know the word for when you say you like something, but you kinda don’t and it’s confusing?” Barnabas finally caught up with his owner and sighed, wishing the best for the person she had cornered.

[Rachel Kester]

Rachel blinked up at her assailant, and had to stifle a groan; one didn't live for eternity among the gods without being aware of the Endless, and this one was even less difficult to identify than the others. Delirium. And if the brightly, multicolored hair and actually kind of cute (if eyeburning) outfit weren't enough, the way she addressed the--heheh--fallen angel was a good enough cue.

She blinked at the girl, straightening and tugging her hat more firmly down over her curls, change still clutched loosely in her hand. "The getting is always more fun than the hurting," she said, a bit bemused. She'd never spoken personally with the Endless before, but she'd had some idea of what to expect. Might as well play along, right?

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'conflict.' That, or vacillation. Or equivocation. Or waffling." Was she purposely trying to confuse one of the Endless? Nooo, never. Rachel certainly wouldn't get her kicks that way. She was just... providing plenty of alternatives. "Or irresolution, indecisiveness, or simply uncertainty." A little smile crossed the angel's face.

[Delirium]

“I like getting things…like my doggie! He was from my brother. Well, one of them…” Delirium trailed off, distracted by a bright pink butterfly that was following her. The suggestions only served to pull her further from remembering her point (had there even been one) Del blinked at the woman, mild confusion clear on her face as she tried to work out if any of those were the word that she wanted. Barnabas mumbles something that sounded like ”purposeful…” but didn’t say anything further. When one was a talking dog, one learned to just shut up around people who might not understand the concept. Besides, he was there to guard, not get involved.

Nodding thoughtfully Del smiled a little. “Those are very good words. You know lots of them…” She still didn’t know if any of those were the words she had wanted, they were all very big and she didn’t really posses the attention span to work out if she knew the meaning to them all. “You look like you thought of something. Was it a nice thought?” Del tilted her head to the right, looking at the blonde sideways as if that was going to change who the woman was or reveal what she was thinking. Del quite liked giving people nice thoughts. “Nice thoughts are fun. Giving people them is fun too.” She beamed at the blonde woman.

[Rachel Kester]

At mention of the dog, Rachel looked at the German Shepherd. She'd heard rumors about the dog that accompanied the Endless, but she tended not to pay attention to stories about animals unless they involved birds or--ech--cats. What was his name again? Didn't it start with a B?

While she was distracted by thoughts of the dog, Delirium was distracted with pink butterflies, so that seemed to work out nicely. "Yeah, getting things is always nice. Nicer than giving things, I think. Giving things is fun, but getting things is funner." So not a word. She had a feeling that Delirium wouldn't give a shit, though, if she even realized the difference.

Rachel smiled. "Words are interesting. They're like puzzle pieces. Only the puzzle changes every time you open the box. Er. Your mouth." Christ, she was starting to confuse herself... oh well. This was still entertaining.

When Delirium tilted her head, Rachel narrowed her eyes a little curiously, peering at the girl. What was she...? Nevermind. Better not to ask with this particular Endless. She was relatively certain the answer wouldn't make any sense, anyway. "I thought something amusing. Do you give people nice thoughts often?"

[Delirium]

Del’s face lit up. “it IS funner.” She nodded emphatically. People were really starting to stare at her rather…flamboyant appearance. This was really never an issue for her, obviously. When you’ve been around for as long as she had, doing what she does…you never really stop to think that maybe you look a little insane.

The talk of words and puzzle very nearly flew right over Del’s head. This person here was doing a fine job of messing up the queen of confusion herself. Pretty damn impressive. “Wouldn’t it be odd…if you DID open your mouth and puzzle pieces came out?”Del’s expression glazed over a bit as she considered. “I imagine it wouldn’t taste good…the pieces, I mean. They’re made of carsomething aren’t they? Car…door. No…Car…crash….” The girl frowned. ”Cardboard…” Barnabas mumbled, poking the conversation along a bit. “That’s the word! Thank you, doggy.”

“I LOVE making people nice thoughts!” Del replied happily. “Like that nice man who played music. Now he can hear it all of the time!” She was particularly proud of that one.

[Rachel Kester]

Okay, it probably wasn't the most appropriate way to refer to one of the Endless... but Delirium really was just bloody adorable. Rachel grinned, showing the gap in her front teeth--a 'flaw' she'd never seen a need to correct, partly because an angel with orthodontics is just undignified--at the girl Endless in front of her.

Rachel had to giggle a little at Delirium's serious consideration of her interpretation of words as puzzle pieces. When the dog--seriously, what the hell was his name? she couldn't remember--supplied the word Delirium had been looking for, Rachel winked at him in a companionable sort of way.

"Probably not. Then again, people do eat a lot of very strange things. Did you know there's alcohol with flakes of actual gold in it? And I still can't believe people eat snails... I guess it wouldn't be so very odd to see people munching on cardboard, would it?" she asked with a little smile, tilting her head.

Oh, well that was just... Rachel was going to keep her love of music to herself, thankyouverymuch. "Oh... yes, that was very kind of you, Delirium. I'm sure he appreciates it a lot. Was it good music?"

[Delirium]

Oh, Del liked her. “I like your smile…it has a nice sound to it.” She said, very seriously. Because it did have a very nice sound, to Del at least…unless there were other people out there who listened to smiles or really bothered exploring the concept. She tended to do that a lot, spending hours on end considering things that may be considered pointless.

Barnabas nodded a little at the angel, not wanting to get too involved, though she seemed like a person who could carry on a good conversation, even with a sane person. Del’s eyes widened a little at the idea of people eating those things, particularly snails. “Why would they do that?” She asked, looking a little horrified. “Snails are nice…they say nice things and never hurt anybody.” We’re just not going to get into the fact that she’d actually had conversations with snails.

“I thought is was nice music…he looked happy to have it.” The definition of happiness was questionable here. Most of her little “gifts” were a little dodgy.

[Rachel Kester]

Rachel was just going to give up on the being surprised and/or blinking when something unusual was said thing now. There really didn't seem to be any point to it when conversing with Delirium, even more than she'd expected. "Thanks, kiddo. Yours is pretty lovely too."

Oh, whoops. "Well, people eat a lot of things... it's the cycle of life, don't you know. Just like cows eat grass, people eat cows. Same way that foxes eat chickens." Though she had a feeling that that would upset the girl too, christ. Time for some damage control. "You know Native Americans? They think it's fine to eat animals as long as you respect the spirit they had when they were alive." She was probably abridging that, but hey, if it had a chance of not making the girl look that horrified again, Rachel'd take it. She didn't actually like to upset children, and though she knew intellectually that this was one of the Endless, she couldn't help but think of her as a child.

"Then I think it was sweet of you to give it to him," Rachel said, nodding, and--though she probably should know better, having been around the block a time or two--taking Delirium at her word.

[Delirium]

Compliments! Yay! If Del’s smile got any wider, it was possible that the top of her head would just fall off. An idea that amused and terrified her at the same time because lets face it, the thought had definitely crossed her mind before. “I could make it so you smile all of the time! Would you like that?” Barnabas had continuously reminded her to ask before doing things to people. It tended to work out a whole lot better that way. The dog looked at the blonde and shook his head emphatically, hoping Delirium didn’t see him.

“Oh…people are funny sometimes…” Del was trying to process all of that information and work out what needed to be said in response, that whole thing was working out so well for her as per usual. She still didn’t really like the idea of eating lovely things such as snails and liked it even less that she had pegged foxes as being good as well. Those poor chickens. Del tilted her head to the side, considering the angel’s explanation about souls and what have you. “My sister takes care of things like that…” Things like that most likely meaning the death and spirit side of things.

[Rachel Kester]

That... was only a mildly terrifying offer, especially since, while angels were generally pretty resistant to the magical efforts of mortals and even many immortals (and to physical harm, which was quite handy, really), she was pretty sure that the Endless trumped just about everything... and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be the test subject, anyway.

"Oh, thanks, but you see, there's a lot to be said for all the other emotions, too; even sadness can be cathartic, y'know?" Thinking about that, she realized she should probably define it. "I mean, it can make you feel better to get sad things out. Like when you've had a good cry and feel better. I think it's much better to be able to feel and express all emotions."

Hopefully that was clear enough... hopefully. The dog's reaction to Delirium's offer had not gone unnoticed. "They are, definitely. That's why they're so interesting, though." She wasn't entirely sure who Delirium was--OH. Death. Right. How could she forget? All those damn D names. "She does indeed... and she does a fantastic job at it. Just like you do, sweetpea." She couldn't help it; the kid was just so damn cute, even knowing that she was a potentially dangerous uber-immortal.

"I should get going now, but..." Rachel rooted around in her pocket for a moment and came up with a business card, plain white paper at first glance but iridescent gold, green and silver when it moves, with her name and contact information embossed in it. "There's my card. If you ever need a message delivered, you just call your ol' pal Rachel and I'll take care of it," she said with a little grin. "See you around... you too, Barney." Or whatever his name was. She still couldn't remember. With a little wave, the angel headed off, book in hand.

[out]