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Chinatown.
Because of course rolling into town on a search for God and Answers John Constantine knew someone who 'owed him a favour' and would put them up. He neglected to mention that said person would be paying back any favours posthumously and that would put them up constituted breaking and entering past a few wards on the domicile of a dead wizard.
John Constantine…was an asshole.
But he got results.
John took a drag off his cig stepping into the place and knew where to find the switch in the kitchen for the lights. He'd been here before obviously. The place was dusty and neglected for the last three years and was ensconced in curiosities of the odd brick building. "Welcome to home, damnable home, everyone." Leave it to a necromancer to have gallows humor. At least there was one good thing going for the place: few windows and low visibility on the street.
"Which way to the liquor cabinet?" Cassidy asks John, not seeming to care about wards or dead wizards or the state of the cobwebs in the kitchen. Nope, he wanders right on in wearing a pair of faded jeans with tears in them from running from something or another, a grey T-shirt that says "Michigan State" when they never got anywhere near Michigan, and a pair of boots that clomp about as he makes his way through the house, scratching a bit at the back of his neck.
Tulip walks in and looks around. Then she sighs. "Damn. Dusting again. I shouldn't bitch, at least it's a place that hopefully scares away rats…It does scare away rats, right? Or do we have to take watches and shoot the damn things?" She's wearing a low-cut t-shirt, (one where she took scissors to it herself, to make it a collarless v-neck) and jeans. Her hair's held back with a headband.
The moment they rolled up something felt…off. Relatively. Nothing has really been 'right' since they started this madness, so 'wrong' has become the norm. Still, Jesse hesitated on the threshold of breaking and enterting on a dead man's residence, pulling off his sunglasses and giving John a lidded look of general exasperation and doubt before the preacher man strode right on inside and tried to get the lay of the land. "Well. This looks. Depressing." Jesse pulled a grim smile toward John while Cass went on liquor scavenger hunt. "Rats are the last thing givin' me the creeps in here. We ain't going to find a dead body in bed we gotta curl up next to are we, John?"
Constantine shook his head, though a hand pointed Cass up to the china cabinet that was converted to a liquor cabinet. The stuff hadn't been touched in as long as the apartment which meant it only got better with age. "Nit unless bitty chunks of ash and bone blew into here from Greenwitch Village." he paused and squint, "Be a hell of a wind wouldn't it?" Literally on all accounts. He wasn't in what would be called a chipper mood, but was resolute in task. On the upside of things, there were as many articles of faith that they might have lost when the church blew up. This shouldn't need to be a comparison, but it was. There was at least a considering look of sympathy(?) when he looked back to Jesse and Tulip, "Don't worry about little rats, this is New York." He ashed into what looked like a bronze urn. "They'd be the size of small dogs. Harder to get in here. Easier to shoot." Was he joking? Did he know he wasn't funny?
"What'dya mean depressing? This place has great potential! Good bones!" Cassidy exclaims, but that's because he's found the liquor cabinet and there's even liquor in it. He grabs a bottle out of it and he takes a swig from it, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. He strolls around the place and idly picks things up, turning them over, making a face when he encouters something that lets out a cloud of dust. He coughs a bit, puts it down, and then goes about touching more things, all the things.
Philosophically, Tulip says, "If the rats are the size of small dogs, we can just make pets out of them, right? Unless you're likely to sacrifice them, John, in which case there's no use getting attached." She looks sideways at Jesse and says, "We can always make a dead body for you, if you want one, Jess."
Jesse angles a wry smile in John's direction and angles his steps in the opposite direction of Cassidy's, a hand in his pocket and looking rather loose and relaxed while he strolls through, trying not to send puffs of dust up from the carpet with each step and failing. "Y'ever see nutria, John? Wanna talk big rats, head down to a swamp." Drawn toward a window and peering outside, motes of dust making any light that comes in foggy and obscured. Jesse looks out to the street. "They get the size of dogs, Cass'll have a buffet every night. Ah seen enough bodies lately, thanks, Tulip."
Constantine squint to Tulip and looked apologetic, "Not really the serial killer sort. Really, the place should be warded from vermin. We'll see how well that holds." Taking a few steps over one hand gave Jesse's shoulder a squeeze. John took a drag off his cig and just passed it off to the preacher. "Yeah Cass, good bones. Careful what you go playin with there, mate. Some of these things might try to play back. Aloys was always a bit of a bastard leaving his shite unlabeled."
Cassidy glances over at Constantine mid-shake of something that looks old and dusty and probably arcane in nature. He pauses. He looks at Constantine. And then he gives it another shake-shake. Nothing happens. With a shrug, he puts it back on the cabinet and takes another swig from the bottle. "Huhn." That's his only reaction before he goes back to drinking and finds some chair that has nothing on it but dust and flumps into it. A cloud rises up all around him. *ploof* and begins to settle on him. It doesn't stop him from drinking.
Tulip says, "Aww, baby, I'm just tryin' to be a good girlfriend. You said that thing about corpses like you missed havin' 'em around." She frowns at Constantine's words and says, "Anything of mine becomes possessed John, and you're gonna have a new plastic playmate." She shakes her head, then goes to steal the bottle from Cass. "C'mon, time to share, Cass. Cheaper than gettin' me another scone."
Jesse's attention swings casually in the damned man's direction, arching a mild eyebrow feeling the hand on his shoulder. One look at the smoldering cigarette offered out and without a second thought he plucks it from between John's fingers and sticks it comfortably back into the corner of his mouth after a puff, blowing the stream of smoke away from the rest. "You're kidding. You just turned Cassidy lose in an apartment with mystical tripwires in it?" Shifting his weight on his feet, Jesse exchanges looks with Tulip that seems to ask if she's going to pick up bits and pieces of him when they start falling off, or if it's his turn. The look then turns to mild bemusement. "How can I miss it when I'm layin' down next to somethin' cold blooded every night?" Sassing off while Tulip goes to drink away with Cassidy.
Constantine patted Jesse's shoulder. There ya go, mate. In an easy deadpan John looked to Jesse with a mild bewilderment, "Well yeah, mate. How else to find out if it still works and we shouldn't touch it?" He glanced over to Cassidy with a hint of a wry grin and actually chuckled. At sassing Tulip back his pal got a pat on the back for that one. "Look come morning we can start working things out. For now? Oi, it's secure, it's properly overlooked, and Cass won't have his bollocks accidentally roasted off. There's benefit to places like this. It is what it is but it's not on anyone's radar so why not make it work for us. Besides… I'm working on investigating the murder of the owner so this could get us something."
And then there's Tulip taking his bottle and he shoots her a wounded look. So wounded. Dusty and without booze. He slumps into the chair and drapes his legs over the arm on one side and his head off the arm on the other. Slumped in such a way, he goes boneless and grumbles, "S'long as I got a place to stay outta the sun an' more booze, I don't care what kinda macabre knick knacks're lyin' around."
Tulip takes a healthy slug of whatever was in the bottle, then passes it back to the disconsolate Cassidy. "Poor bastard, and now I'm stealin' your booze. Still cheaper than a scone." She grins and says, "Darlin', you can't seem to get away from churches, can you? John's right, though. At least we can relax without having to jack someone to steal rent, right? Wait. Where's the fun in that?"
Jesse smiles briefly at John with that cigarette hanging loose from the corner of his mouth. You're a crazy man, John Constantine. But he appreciates the merits of the place, nodding as folks pitch in their two cents on their new digs. "Hey, better than another motel, huh?" Jesse presses away from the window, patting John's shoulder as well, lowering his voice. "Appreciate it, man." He then angles toward one of the rooms coming off the main space and immediately recoils, swatting at the air in front of his face as he runs into the remains of a spider's web. "We're in New York City, Tulip. If you get bored here, yer not tryin' hard enough. Ah'm sure you'll find a way to keep yerself into trouble."
Constantine gave Jesse a wink back. Crazy, but attentive to small details one might accidentally assume he couldn't be arsed to notice,but he was apparently. "And the rent's right. Can black up one of the side windows." When Jesse was attacked by the spiderweb he didn't laugh. Nope. Not doing it. He looked over to Cass with a hell of a subdued grin though that read: Oh we're gonna have fun with him now. Still backing the Preacher's observation two fingers pointed to one corner of the building. "It's called Soho. I'll take ya down there, luv. All the trouble you could hope to find."