Roof | Friday Evening

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

It came to Jace's attention that one couldn't spend all their time watching Real Housewives shows. Before he had came here he had no interest in television at all but now he had a borderline addiction to those plastic looking hussies. And now they had them in Vancouver!

The mere fact that he got excited over Canadian Real Housewives was a sign he needed to get out a bit. The roof seemed like a logical place to go since he had always liked heights and it was a place he wasn't likely to run into anyone he found too annoying. He figured annoying people hung out at coffee shops and bookstores, places like that.

He picked a spot near the edge of the roof to sit down at and looked over towards the ground, wondering what kind of rune would be required to survive a jump from here. Not that he was stupid enough to try it. He was just stupid enough to ponder it.

[The roof, of course, is open]

Comments

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby liked to consider himself a non-annoying person, as it happened. So perhaps that was why he was on the roof tonight.

Or maybe he just felt like some fresh air. Whatever.

"Jumping seems like a bad plan." Hey, he was looking at the ground, one didn't actually have to be a mindreader to guess that something like that was on his mind.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Jumping is never a good plan," Jace said, looking up at Toby. "But sometimes one is left with no other options. Not that's the case right now."

Yes, Toby could be smug over the fact that Jace wasn't willing to jump off a roof in order to escape him.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"That sounds almost like something that could possibly be considered a compliment," Toby noted.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Well I won't correct you if you decide to take it that way," Jace said. "I've certainly had worse roommates."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Same here," Toby acknowledged with a nod. "You haven't stolen anything from me, for starters." Which put him well ahead of... most of the people Toby'd roomed with.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"You don't have anything I particularly want," Jace drawled. "No offense."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"None taken," Toby said easily. "So why the roof and not a common room?" he asked.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"I'm taking a break from the TV," Jace answered. "I'm afraid I've taken too much of a liking to those Bravo reality shows."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"A fate I've managed to avoid so far, at least," Toby shared. This was probably at least in part due to coming from a time where reality shows consisted of, well... COPS.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"It creeps up on you. Didn't watch TV at all before I came here," Jace said. "Old churches aren't known for their sweet cable hookups."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

That netted him a curious look. "You lived in a church? You a runaway or something?" he'd spent some time in abandoned buildings, it was a somewhat logical leap.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"No, orphan, but that's not why I live in a church," Jace said. "It's just where my people live when we're outside our home country. Catholic church owes us favors, so they let us live in their churches."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"What'd your people manage that the church owes them favours?" Yeah, Toby was being a little nosy, but it was in his nature.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Oh the usual, stopped some wars, kept demons from taking over the world," Jace said. "Pretty sure we suggested that oh so stylish hat for the Pope."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

...A year ago, Toby would've pegged Jace as crazy, a liar, or both. Well, okay, that second thing may still be true, but the important thing was that this particular statement was backed up by the fact that Jace definitely considered it the truth.

Still, it took a beat or two for Toby to finally come up with: "It is a pretty fancy hat, I can see how that might be worth a favour or two."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

Jace nodded. "They owe us more than churches for that fashion statement, but it'll do for now. The church itself is really quite beautiful."

Okay if anyone but a Shadowhunter looked at it it'd look like crap, but it really was nice.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"But with the tradeoff of a lack of cable," Toby said with a note of mock-disappointment in his voice. "So the demon thing, is that what's up with the..." his eyes darted towards Jace's arms, with their- well, he was assuming they were scars.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

Jace looked down at the scars on his arms. "Sort of? I do it to myself, the runes are used to give me an edge when it comes to fighting against the demonic guys."

It was still sort of weird to be giving straight answers to these sort of questions but after everything he had seen the last few months keeping up with a fake identity seemed stupid.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"I thought the church wasn't all that big on magic," Toby mused. "But then, I suppose, they'd be less thrilled with demons. I know I would."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"The church being hypocritical is nothing new," Jace said. "The runes aren't magic for us, not really. It's more like a very helpful language."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"I'll take your word for that," Toby decided. "Well. I guess I pretty much have to, seeing as you're the only person I know who uses runes to help fight demons." It seemed like a very specific career choice. Calling. Whatever. For all of Fandom's people from various levels of weirdness, he was willing to bet there weren't too many others, if any, here who did.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Do you know people who fight demons in a different way?" Jace asked. He had been curious if there were any other do-gooders like him around.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Not as such, no," Toby hedged. Because... well. There was Sam, who definitely fought supernatural stuff on occassion, but 1) Toby had no idea if there were demons involved and 2) it wasn't his secret to tell, there.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"With all the heroes walking around here I thought at least one other person would go after the same things I do," Jace said with a shrug. "But I suppose there's all sorts of bad guys around."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Not all of 'em are of the paranormal type, even," Toby said thoughtfully.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

So the summer was about to start and Rebecca was going to be stuck in Maryland. On top of that, she was still stuck with an irritating roommate, her dad wouldn't answer her texts, Peter was being a bitch, and her room was currently home to an unreasonably angry cat. So... yeah, it was time for Rebecca to hide out on the roof.

With a flask. Because she was cool.

"Hey," she said, unscrewing the cap as she took a seat against the ledge not far from Jace. "If you jump and don't die, I'll be seriously impressed."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"I hope that's not an actual challenge," Jace said. "Because I'm bad at saying no to those."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Rebecca pondered it. "Do you have superpowers?"

Seriously, what was her life that she just felt okay asking people this?

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"You mean like was I bitten by a radioactive spider or had toxic waste spilled on me? No," Jace replied. "But I'm not fully human and that comes with added benefits."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Ooh," Rebecca said, offering her flask in his direction. "Do tell."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Well," Jace started as reached over to accept the flask. "I'm an angel."

Or part of one. Sounded better the way he said it.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

...

...

"You're a what now."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

Jace took a swig from the flask and handed it back over to Rebecca. "I know you're not the holiest of people but surely you know what an angel is."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah," Rebecca said after taking a swig of it herself, "but you'll have to excuse me saying that you don't actually look like one. I mean, there's that one guy who has wings, at least. I would've guessed him first."

Beat.

"Wait. I fucked an angel?"

Way to condense the situation to its simplest and most self-centered form, Rebecca.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"You fucked a guy that has the blood of an angel running through his veins, yes," Jace said with a nod. "I'm not an angel in the sense that I'm BFFs with God or anything."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Well that was significantly less cool. But still interesting.

"So you're, what, related to one?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"In a sense, I suppose," Jace said. "My ancestors drank the blood of an angel and became something more than human. The generations after that got to keep the perks of the angel blood without, you know, actually having to drink blood."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

...right, this was the weirdest shit she'd ever heard. The booze was helping, though. That and (she thought) a complete resignation to every weird thing this island could throw at her.

"Always a good thing not to have to do," Rebecca decided. "So the perks include... what?"

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Oh all sorts of things. Advanced reflexes, strength, stamina..." Well Rebecca had probably already knew about that last one. "My good looks are all me though, there are some unfortunate looking Shadowhunters around."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Rebecca totally found no fault in the part about the stamina or the good looks. Ahem.

"Nice," she said approvingly. Partly about the good looks, yes. "That's pretty badass of you."

...not even flirting, actually. Well, not entirely, anyway. This was her 'sincerely impressed' face.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"It is, isn't it?" Jace said with a playful hair flip. "I have to say you have your own badass qualities too---for a human."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Rebecca tossed her hair right back. Please, like she was going to let him be the bigger diva in the conversation. "Who says I'm human?"

She was totally human.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

Jace smirked. "A girl like you wouldn't hide something like that."

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"I'll take that as a compliment," Rebecca decided. "Fine, you got me. One hundred percent standard-issue human mortal. Just, you know, cooler and more badass than most, apparently."

By the way, Jace, thanks for the ego boost.