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[The house itself had a certain charm, to be sure, but the interior...his eyes widen as he looks about the walls, floor to ceiling with books...]

Maker's breath...

[Ah, yes, his hostess had asked him a question and he turned back to her. He'd ask graciously to unabashedly consume her library later.]

Ah, yes. Well enough, I suppose. And you?

Yeah. We have loads of books. Most of these belonged to Richard's father, honestly.

[And there were loads of Sumerian mythology books, because Howard Strand had three passions and one of them was that. There were also some on corruption in the Catholic church. Of course there were books that Richard and herself had added, but books were one of the few things that had survived the great purging of the house that they'd done.]

Most of Richard's are in the study. And I'm okay. Glad to see you.

How is it you have his father's entire library?

[And how much to I have to pay to read all of it?]

Ah, yes, and you. [He clears his throat.] Keeping busy? [That's what he'd been doing, joining expeditions, drinking a lot...]

We have his father's entire house, actually.

[Alex just gestured around to the living room around them.]

Well, Richard's house too. He was living here in Seattle before we ended up here. But yeah, I've been okay.

[She's just going to pour him a scotch and bring it over to him, because when you're involved with Richard Strand, you know how long the whole book thing can take.]

It must have been hell getting it through the portal.

[He takes the scotch with a nod of thanks.]

Richard's father was a learned man, or at the least liked appearing so. [And he takes a sip of the scotch and then looks at the glass with slight surprise.]

Well, this is quite good.

He was. Mythology and proving that the Church was corrupt and occult things. But the most of the last one is locked up upstairs.

[Because of Stan and Simon and in no small extent her and Richard as well. After all no one needs demons and being reminded of keys and the end of the world every day. They’ve got other things to get on with.

And she laughed softly.]

No need to sound so surprised, Dorian. I broke out the good stuff for you. This stuff is older than I am.

Aren't all churches corrupt, at least to an extent?

[He finds himself wondering what a world like Alex's would classify as "occult", but honestly, he can explore later.]

Oh? And to what do I owe the honor of such treatment?

There's corrupt and then there's levels of the Catholic Church corrupt, honestly. They've got like hundred of billion dollars in assets and that's not count the historical treasures and the actual churches that they own. They're... a special case.

[But also fuck Howard Strand, Alex would punch him if she could.

But instead she's just going to laugh.]

Because you're my friend and it's the first time you're visiting my house. And of course there's a little bit of the booze snob there thing too.

But not singular. They sound rather like the Chantry, honestly. Direct influence within the government, elections that are political rather than any sort of divine ordinance.

[He smiles. How pleasant his guise is still working. It wouldn't do for any of his friends to know he really couldn't care less what he was drinking so long as the objective was accomplished. That made him sound like a lush which...he is, but it need not be aired so publicly.]

You are too kind.

Yeah. That sounds like them. Fucking up humanity for something like almost two thousand years.

[Alex herself is a recovering catholic so she knows of which she speaks honestly. But that’s neither here nor there. Instead she’s just gonna smirk.]

Yeah but don’t tell anyone.

[Like most of riverview didn’t know all of that already.]

Ah, I doubt they were the only hand in. That's rarely the case.

[He does turn from the bookshelves, though.]

If you wanted to keep that a secret, you really should have put more effort into it.

No, they weren't, but they definitely were the ones in power for a huge part of the shitty things that humanity's done. Even when it's not their fault directly, they're still not helping fight what is.

[Alex just shrugs and then she laughs softly.]

Yeah, probably. But what's up?

True enough, and the Chantry, when the heavens were torn and demons spilled unfettered into our world, pointed fingers and floundered about like decapitated chickens.

[He raised an eyebrow at her question. She'd invited him here after all.]

I was hoping you'd tell me, though I'd believe it if you were simply to claim you meant to tease we with your literary inheritance.

[Alex frowned at the mention of demons; it was a habit after all, and she never really got any better at preventing it from happening. It's just who she was now, and a year in this place hadn't tempered it any; it had only made it worse honestly.]

You reached out though, I thought you might have had a reason.

[And until this very moment, Dorian had the distinct impression he'd dodged that particular line of questioning, but it would seem his charm wasn't potent enough to deviate Alex's attentiveness.

He heaved a sigh and turned back to the wall of books. They were, after all, the most quiet and constant of friends, books.]

Magnus has gone. Again.

[This is Alex. She never really lets anything go honestly. All one needs to do is ask Richard about that. But the words surprised her and she just frowned at him.]

Oh Dorian. I’m so sorry. That's terrible!

[And there it was, the very reason he'd withheld the information in the first place. Pity.]

It should be expected, shouldn't it? We are from various worlds, after all.

[A callous response, perhaps, but it was also a self-defense mechanism.]

[it wasn’t pity. Alex didn’t pity him. Instead she felt sad for him and sad for magnus and sad that Dorian didn’t have someone who deserved him in his life. But she’s also quite good at knowing that defensive mechanism after being around Richard so much so she just comes over with the bottle and adds some to his glass without saying anything.

He knew she was sorry. Alex didn’t need to repeat it again.]

[If only Dorian could stomach the idea that he deserved someone at all, to hold him, to tell him everything was going to be alright...maybe he'd listen more, be more open.

Still, after so many years of having no worth other than capability, it was all he could find his value in. His eyes were grateful as she refilled his glass and he breathed a long sigh and lapses into silence for a moment, looking down at the swirling liquid.]

I'm...so tired, Alex, and I haven't even begun.

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