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[takeitsleazy]

Welcome. Everything is fine. Your canon. His canon. Random meme setting. Game Inbox (Specify). Whatever your strange, human heart desires.

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[blessedarethebookmakers]

"Good morning, Michael!" He is happy to see him, happy to see his smiling face and to be part of a nice, uncomplicated friendship.

"My compliments on your bowtie! It can be either one, but really, my dear, there's no need to be formal about anything. A brunch is about relaxing. Generally one has it because they woke up too late for a proper breakfast but not quite in the mood for lunch." He gestures to a chair. "Please."

[takeitsleazy]

"Oh! Thank you very much!" The word Aziraphale would probably have used to best describe Michael's reaction would have been 'chuffed': in fact, he probably looked like the very definition of it as he took his seat and picked up his napkin, unfolding it to spread it neatly and precisely in his lap. He could think of no finer way to spend a morning than with someone as seasoned in human life as Aziraphale - well, maybe one, but that finer way was not to be discussed in present company, and probably still sleeping off her tequila.

"Hence the word that sounds like the two things squished together! Pretty clever. Especially since breakfast food really is some of the best stuff. At least, in my opinion. Though I'm finding that I really like dessert, too."

[blessedarethebookmakers]

"Isn't it wonderfully cheeky? I adore it. Oh... I wish I could take you to somewhere decent. Paris maybe or...this little cafe just a few blocks from my little shop in SoHo. It is an experience going to places that specialize in good food." He smirked a little at the dessert comment.

"Oh, my dear, with brunch you don't have to settle." And, just on cue, the waiters brought out the first course. Waffles covered with blueberries and raspberries and whipped cream and delightful little cups of mocha lattes with feathers worked into the foam.

[takeitsleazy]

"Waffles," he breathed happily, already completely won over. Then the waiter set a latte in front of him, and his eyes widened.

"OH! But this is so pretty. I don't know if I could drink it. ... Is thaaaat why humans take so many Instagram photos of their food?! I think I get it now! Oh. Oh, this is great."

He was having the very best time, and he hadn't even taken a bite yet. Grinning, he lifted his cup. "To brunch?"

[blessedarethebookmakers]

"I've no idea what instagram is. But I do appreciate good food photography." He raised his cup and clinked it against Michael's. "To brunch." And sipped it. "MM! Mmm. Absolutely delectable."

He took a moment to drench his waffles in syrup and then added a dollop of whipped cream before cutting the stack neatly. "Do you not have food much in the...wherever...circle you come from?"

[takeitsleazy]

"Oh, we do," he replied, following Aziraphale's example though with slightly less syrup so he could see what the waffles themselves were like, first. "It's just all meant to be terrible, so morale stays at the right level, so to speak. When I built Eleanor's neighborhood, I admit to cheating a little and making some restaurants for the things I'd always wanted to try, first, before all the frozen yogurt stands."

The first bite of waffle melted in his mouth, and he sank back in his chair with a delighted sigh before reaching for the coffee. "Instagram, though, it's an application for mobile phones. People take little square pictures and put filters and hashtags on them and share them with each other."

In actuality, it was probably something Crowley invented.

[blessedarethebookmakers]

"Frozen yogurt? My word. I've never had any, but now I'm not entirely certain I want to try. On the other hand I do love devilishly good sweets." A wink. He took a bite and took a moment to enjoy it, savoring the delicious sweet syrup with the weight of the waffle underneath and just a teensy bite of cinnamon.

"Mmm. Delicious." He dabbed at his lips. "That is ingenious. I might get Crowley to show me how it works sometime." He gave Michael a look.

"I would like to float something by you. A sort of...philosophical situation if you will. If you're in the mood for such heavy topics with such delightful entrees."

[takeitsleazy]

"It's okay, but that's all I'd really say about frozen yogurt. That was the whole point of it being in the Neighborhood, really: that it was good, but it wasn't quite good enough to be perfect. Just good enough to pass."

He took a long, slow drink of the latte, particularly enjoying the way the foam stuck to his lips and how frothy it felt. "Mmh! This is coffee!" He said in surprise. "I've never had a coffee with foamy stuff on top like this. It's so fun!" A quick dart of his tongue cleared the foam out of the way for more serious conversation, and he leaned forward a little, eyes shining.

"But I'd be happy to discuss philosophy with you, Aziraphale. It's no good having all the knowledge Chidi taught me if I can't use it. Shoot!"

[blessedarethebookmakers]

"Something more like Purgatory, then. Which I've never been to. I'm not entirely sure it isn't a myth. But humans are so fortunate to have so many places to go. So many opportunities." He took a sip of the latte himself and closed his eyes. "Divine..."

"Oh well it's not philosophy as such. I've tried to get into it but I just... well I Kant." He grinned at his own pun, rather proud of it! Though he hadn't known Kant at all, and by all accounts had dodged a bullet there.

"Just a supposition really." He bolstered himself with another sip of coffee. "Suppose that, regardless of whether humans did good or bad in their lives-- were paragons or criminals-- saints or murderers-- they all ended up in the same place or situation when they died?"

[takeitsleazy]

Michael, however, had had so much Emmanuel Kant shoved at him that the pun was not only hysterical, but one he had made several times himself to little or no effect. For that alone, he laughed far harder than the joke seemed to deserve.

"That one never gets old," he beamed, then settled back to listen to Aziraphale's question, taking another nibble off his plate. He wiggled his shoulders a little in a silent happy food dance. The question itself was one he'd had a decent amount of experience with and plenty of time to think about, all things considered, so it didn't take him long at all to answer, though he chose his words with care.

"Regardless? Well, I'd think it could mean a couple of different things, depending on how you looked at it. I mean, if you wanted to be a total Debbie Downer about it, you could be like Nietzsche and say that nothing anyone did in life really meant or amounted to anything ... or you could say that it was proof that everyone was equal in the end, and the bad being in the same place as the good was their chance to learn how to better their souls, so the afterlife could still be, effectively, a Good Place."

[blessedarethebookmakers]

He couldn't help but giggle at the appreciative laugh. He did so love Michael's sense of humor. The silent happy food dance also added to his good mood. It was rather whimsical and childlike without being cloying.

Though the good feeling faded a bit when the supposition began.

"As to the second," Since the first was too nihilistic to contemplate. "It seems like it would just be a continuation. There was a chance to make the world better in life, so to make the afterlife better-- for what reason? What motivation could you possibly have? You'll just be there...for eternity. No reward to look forward to. It's so disturbing."

[takeitsleazy]

"No reward?" Michael tilted his head, feeding his train of thought with another bite of pancake as he let it run. "But good deeds should be done regardless of what any anticipated or received reward should be, shouldn't they? Otherwise they aren't truly good. They're - what's it called - moral dessert."

[blessedarethebookmakers]

"True, but think of it from an outside perspective. Consider, Eleanor does a good thing, a good deed. But in the end it isn't acknowledged. She gets no good from it. She may even get bad from it. In the end, it amounted to nothing. There seems to be no justice. It seems most unfair, that system." He was so bent out of shape about it that he couldn't even think to eat at the moment.

[takeitsleazy]

"No, no..." He held up his hands. "I'm not saying there shouldn't be a reward at all! I'm just saying that if people do good things because they expect the reward ... not just because they're good things that ought to be done, not just out of actual goodness ..." He stumbled a bit, realizing that he was on the verge of screwing this up. He held up a hand to stall for a moment.

"What I'm trying to say is ... yes, let there be a reward. But let the motives for being good be taken into consideration just as much as the good itself."