She'll teach those hatches! [Open to Multiple]

[rae_of_sun]

Well, if there's ever been a reason for Sunshine to start pushing herself in the magic-handling department, the arrival of a mega-toxic kali nightmare goon from wherever-the-hell - and a subsequent text containing a ward symbol against said nightmare goon - definitely qualifies. Gods, has she missed wards. And, okay, she finds it a little hard to fully trust the effectiveness of a ward symbol drawn by… well, anyone aside from an accredited wardsmith (herself included)… but if there's even a slight chance that it'll work, she will gladly wallpaper the entire damn building with the thing.

Better to start small, though, especially if what she's going for is 'permanent.' Which is why she's standing outside her own apartment door with the little image of the symbol pulled up on her phone. She examines the picture with a tight little frown, memorizing the details in case intent is not enough. Then she tucks her phone into the back pocket of her shorts and braces her palms against the door.

Okay. She can do this. It's big - far bigger than anything she's attempted before - but it's only wood. Easy compared to metal or stone. And her grandmother said she could do anything in bright sunlight, and there's plenty of that shining in through the window at the end of the hall, all of two feet to her right. So.

Sunshine shuts her eyes, pictures the ward symbol as clearly as she can, and shoves.

A bolt of power runs down her arms and into her door, the recoil strong enough to force her back a pace. She opens her eyes, regains her balance, and takes in her new door.

At first, she thinks it was a bust; the change is so subtle. But then she realizes that the ward symbol is there, right in the middle of her door and as large as a dinner plate. It's visible only because the grain of the wood abruptly changes direction, like an incredibly fine inlay. She steps closer and runs her fingertips over the line where symbol ends and door begins, but she can't feel a seam.

"Gods," she breathes. Could she darken it? Probably, yes, if she tried again. Make it a bit more obvious, if that's what's needed. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. It worked. How's that for permanent?

Okay. She'll come back to her own door later. First, she has to do Spike's. And then the main entrances. And then the windowsills. And then literally every other flat surface she can reach.


[ooc: Sunshine is gonna spend the day WARDING ALL THE THINGS, so feel free to have your character run into her in any given hallway, down by the front door, or even up on the roof. Pretty much anywhere in the rebel apartment building is fair game. And hey, she'll probably ward your door if you ask nicely.]

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[bibliophale]

"Well. Good." Aziraphale can see she doesn't want him to worry, but he's sort of beyond that. He is glad they escaped the worst of it - though he's wondering just how bad that 'scar' is - and he manages a warm smile as he pats her hand.

"Have you always been able to do this?" he asks curiously, sensing they are both eager to change the subject. He glances back at the windows. "I thought you could only - transmute, rather than create? Or have I got the mechanics of it wrong?" For all the matter rearrangement he's capable of, 'magic' is still a bit mysterious to him, especially coming from another universe. He peers curiously at her ward, then touches his hand to it. It does seem active. "It's quite impressive," he says in complete sincerity.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine is totally fine with changing the subject, and she turns back to the window with a shrug. "I'm new to warding. It's not the kind of thing any old magic handler can do back home, not without a lot of training, which I... don't have." She gently prods her latest creation, still a bit stunned by the unmistakable 'live ward' feeling it's giving off. It's like she's cheating, somehow. "But I'm just thinking of it as transmutation, really. Like changing a 1987 penny into a 1978 penny - I'm changing an unwarded window into a warded one." She shrugs again. She's been trying not to think too hard about it, honestly, because she's pretty sure that if she tries to delve into the specifics, she'll end up psyching herself out. "Never transmuted anything this big before, though," she allows. There's really no getting around that notable difference.

[bibliophale]

"Sort of flying blind then, except you've been given directions," murmurs Aziraphale, wondering what she could do if she just started making up sigils. Probably mayhem. She wouldn't do that, fortunately. "Fascinating. I don't really have to even think about it, I just... you know. Miracles, all that. I imagine it takes a bit more energy for you. Are you all right? Tired, or anything?"

Really, he should already have thought to do this, but if she has the motivation and the new skill to flex, he's happy she's taken it in hand. At the very least now he can offer his assistance.

[rae_of_sun]

"Um." Sunshine raises her eyebrows, considering. She's been trying to pace herself, because she doesn't want to end up having to stop before she has the public entrances covered (and because she knows exactly how Spike is will get if he finds out she's overexerted herself yet again). And this isn't as trying as constant healing.

But. "Glass is kind of a beast to work with," she admits. "Worse than wood, because it's denser and… stubborn." She's not entirely sure what Aziraphale's angling for, here, but she wouldn't mind some assistance in covering the building if he's up for it.

[bibliophale]

"Ah, yes, that makes sense." He rubs his chin thoughtfully. "You need sunlight to do it, though, don't you? If I remember correctly from the dream?" Not much light coming in these windows, to say nothing of the inner doors and wherever else. "I don't suppose you've been ducking outside periodically or anything." This may be a mild bit of mother-henning. Aziraphale has been known to be a mother hen on occasion.

[rae_of_sun]

"I don't have to be in sunlight, but it does help." She leans back against the windowsill and looks up at him with a wry smile. She's actually in pretty good shape, especially considering what happened last time she did some serious magical output, so the fact that she now gets to deal with his mild fretting is more ironic than annoying. "I've been pacing myself," she says in a tone that implies a sarcastic, 'dad.' "And periodic transmutations aren't as draining as constant healing."

… Okay, so she didn't really mean to air that implication. Whoops.

[bibliophale]

"Well, no, but-" Aziraphale blinks a few times. "Did you say constant healing? Did you - Was it Spike?" He frowns sharply. "Is he all right?"

[rae_of_sun]

Sheer, Sunshine. It was probably too much to hope for that Aziraphale wouldn't pick up on that, and she drops her gaze to the floor, shoulders hunching a little, unconsciously. "He's fine," she insists, as much to herself as him. Gods, is there a not-completely-horrifying way to phrase this? "That… thing… missed his heart, and I was right there, so."

[bibliophale]

Aziraphale makes an impassioned sort of grunt (in the place of where an ordinary person might say something like "Christ") and sags a little. There's not much he can say that he hasn't already said, all of it inadequate.

"I... I'm so sorry," he murmurs, because he has to say something. "I'm glad you could help him."

He feels like an absolute ass, standing here floating vague platitudinous comforts. He wishes he could just give her a hefty dose of divine joy, but one can't simply do that, humans have to have already worked toward it.

But he could give her something.

"Here," he says, and takes her hand perfunctorily. "This doesn't - nothing can possibly make up for what you've been through, apart from time. But this might help you now."

He clasps her hand gently but firmly and gives her a little burst of - well, sunlight, essentially, or rather the feeling of sunlight, the warmth and sensation of standing in it, as she might receive if she went outside at noon. A little boost, for all that she's done today, and all she's done recently.

[rae_of_sun]

"Me, too," she says quietly, still staring down at the threadbare carpeting. All things considered, she would have rather not needed to patch a giant gaping hole in Spike's chest - there are so many other things they could have done with their day - but she's still pretty goddamn grateful that she could. Even if he could have recovered on his own, she doesn't like to think about how long it would have taken (and how incredibly carthaginian gross he would have been in the meantime).

She glances up when Aziraphale takes her hand, a little surprised by the gesture… though that's nothing compared to the surprise she feels when he just - what is he even…?! Sunshine's eyebrows shoot up, and she inhales sharply as Aziraphale frigging injects her with sunlight as casually as filling up a tank at the gas station. Her come-hither flares for a moment, bright enough that the golden web is visible even through the fabric of her shirt. At least her hair doesn't stir, though she's worried for a moment that it might. Talk about over the top.

"Wow," she says in a much louder voice than she means to. "Um," she continues at a more reasonable volume, "thank you. I… did not know you could do that."

[bibliophale]

Aziraphale beams with a nice flicker of unfettered joy. "Nor did I!" he says. "I wasn't exactly sure I could, you know - do it right. But it's okay? I mean - that - that's supposed to happen?" He releases her hand for a half-hearted gesture encompassing her, covered in fantastically glowing lines of light. He's never seen anything like that, but she seems to be happy.

"I suppose that might come in handy on a dark day," he says, feeling rather pleased with himself.

[anguiform]

Crowley is absolutely not coming by the Rebel apartments in order to check that Aziraphale is doing all right, because he absolutely had not been worrying after Aziraphale, because Crowley does not do concern for his fellow... beings. He just happens to be here, and figures he might as well stop in on the angel whilst he's in the neighbourhood.

The sigils painted on the door and the windows immediately stick out as a change, and Crowley eyes them speculatively. He'd got the text from Gabriel, but hadn't dared ward his own flat, and he's not actually sure whether they might not keep him out as effectively as the Devil. He recognises some of the devices, and he is, after all, a fallen angel as well, and one of significantly less power. Going through the front door, then, he squints his eyes shut and screws up his nose, like he's preparing to walk into a waterfall.

A tingle, that's all he feels. Vaguely unpleasant and sort of staticky, leaving a residual little itch, but when he opens his eyes, he's inside. He brushes down his shirtfront. Well, there we go. Different universes, different rules, he supposes.

The sigils continue all over the walls as he goes down corridors and up stairs; somebody has certainly been busy.

Who that somebody might be becomes clear when he pushes a door open out of a stairwell, turning into a corridor to see Aziraphale and his baker chum, who is at this moment quite literally luminescent. Crowley pushes up one of his shirtsleeves which had come unrolled, baring a mostly-healed burn from the encounter in the bookshop last week, and leans against a wall. He chooses to announce his presence via a wolf-whistle.

'Nice trick.'

[rae_of_sun]

"Yeah, it's… it's okay." It's better than okay; she hasn't felt this good in days. It's like he just supercharged her like a battery or something, the come-hither taking up the excess. The glowing's a bit much, though, and she self-consciously rubs her arms until the light fades.

The cringe-inducting whistle gets her attention, and for half a second she expects it to be Spike. But no, it's just Crowley… who apparently has been demoted to 'just.' Well, after Lucifer, it's hard for even a full-blooded demon to inspire much terror. He might have freaky shadows, but at least he's not nothing but freaky shadows.

Still, that doesn't mean she's delighted to see him, and it's still a somewhat unenthusiastic, "Hey," she throws his way.

[bibliophale]

"Look!" He turns to Crowley, rather delighted to see him, actually, and for a moment not bothering to hide it. "I gave her an energy boost for her magic! I can do that!" He points, just as excitedly, to Sunshine's warded window. "She's been putting them up all over. Isn't it brilliant?"

He wants to ask Crowley if he's put any up at his flat, but that might not be a good question. Especially not in front of Sunshine. Who, thankfully, seems less cagey around Crowley than before.

"So what brings you to our neck of the woods?" he asks, doggedly cheerful.

[anguiform]

Sunshine's lack of enthusiasm is met with an arched eyebrow and a little, finger-wiggling wave. Yeah, yeah, he knows, you don't like him, see how much he cares?

'Is that your magic?' Aziraphale had given him a fairly useless, handwaving response when Crowley had asked after her abilities, and he is actually quite curious. All this business with multiple universes, there's flavours of humanity here in Manhattan that neither he nor Aziraphale have ever encountered who can (presumably) do all sorts of things the humans they're more used do certainly couldn't. 'Very flash.'

And the wards are her work as well? Crowley nods up up at the window, which does not merely have a symbol painted onto it or anything so simple; the window itself has been altered, the ward worked into it in stained glass. He frowns in approval. 'I noticed; 's good work, actually. Thorough.'

He gives Aziraphale a flat look at his obstinately sunny question, because really, angel? 'Just running errands,' he says vaguely. 'You're looking much more in one piece than you were the other day.'

[rae_of_sun]

Well, Crowley can have a subtle eye-roll right back. She might be less cagey, but she still doesn't appreciate the evident kick he gets out of being obnoxious.

"Sort of," she replies in response to his first question, giving Aziraphale a faintly disapproving glance. Just what has he been sharing?

But she can't help but be a bit mollified by the genuine compliment to her wards. Hey, she's proud of them - not to mention ridiculously excited that she can pull them off at all - and the corners of her mouth tick upwards. "Thanks," she says, stepping away from the window so she can turn and examine her work again. "The text did say 'permanent,' so." Doesn't get much more permanent than a proper inlay, she figures.

Her smile vanishes at 'in one piece,' and she gives Aziraphale a worried look. She's been trying not to think too hard about that lingering bruise, or how badly he might have been hurt before he had a day or so to shake it off, but Crowley's comment has made that impossible.

[bibliophale]

Aziraphale doesn't notice the disapproval - anyway he'd only mentioned that she could do magic, nothing wrong with that, is there? For a moment he's busy smiling fondly at the two of them, happy to see them getting along, or displaying a fair amount of civility, anyway.

And then Crowley has to go and make that comment. His smile fades, not completely, but downshifting into a wry shadow of itself.

"I'm all right," he murmurs. He can feel Sunshine's eyes on him, and he glances over at her. "Nothing I couldn't come back from. And I had someone looking after me just as Spike did."

He resists making any direct indication of Crowley, but he smiles a little wider, just for a moment, before redirecting his gaze to the floor. There had been distractions enough at the time, but now that there's some distance from the aftermath of his ill-fated fight, he feels an even greater warmth toward Crowley for the care he'd taken. As much as he knows Crowley doesn't want to hear about it.