( @laughingmagi continued from here )
He was a little drunk. Okay, a lot, but New York tended to have that affect on him. It was too enticing, the late night bars, the glittering artifice of American excess. However, since he’d landed in JFK, he’d neglected to get a room. John had been wandering for hours, it seemed, until he found himself in the Village, not quite remembering how he’d gotten there. His fingers passed over a building’s address plaque as he walked by. 177 Bleeker Street. It reminded him of something. A place, a story, but more than anything, he felt power. He put a hand against the door and he swore it emanated a warmth.
John swayed backward when the door opened before he even had a chance to think of knocking. Ah – There he was. Stephan Strange. It was good to match a face to the legends. He was terribly handsome too, which was a pleasant surprise.
“Hi – I’m John Constantine,” John drawled, eyes as focused and intent on the man despite how fuzzy he was round the edges. “Y’mind if I crash f’the night?”
The house had been cold and quiet for a couple of days. He felt like she’d been pouting, given the resident class of students she’d been hosting had gone back to Kamar Taj after their archival class had finished working on one of the upper store rooms. With sixteen acolytes bustling about, she’d finally begun to feel... lived in. And now it was just him again, drinking rose tea and ruminating over New York’s bustle and his separation from it. He’d been half tempted to go out and have a drink himself, when suddenly a knock came at the door.
A knock. In the middle of the night. Right when he needed it.
And from the way the house brightened up immediately, he knew that she was interested in whoever was at the door. He understood why, when finally the man’s features finally compiled into a realization, though it took him a minute for them to coalesce.
“Uh... I. Suppose not,” he got out finally, standing aside from the door hesitantly. Constantine’s name was on the list of magic users from other dimensions he could welcome relatively safely, he’d just never expected to put a face to the name. “My name is Stephen Strange, I’m the current master of this Sanctum.”