Tony Foster

Following Leah's guidance, they found a shallow hole in an alley off Hastings Street between Gore and Main. The Chinese restaurant along one side was just opening, so they waited while a bored young man in kitchen whites tossed yellow plastic bags of garbage into the Dumpster.

“Why do these kinds of metaphysical things always happen in alleys,” Tony wondered as they walked past the Dumpster. “Why not in the middle of the TransCanada? Or a meter over the sock counter at Sears? Or in someone’s apartment?”

[Parts of this post and the comments are from chapter eight of Smoke and Ashes.]

( Read more... )

The nice thing about your boss being up-to-date on the wacky in your life is that when you're expecting demons to attack, it's a good excuse to skip work.

Tony and Leah had moved over to Leah's apartment, since she didn't want to sit around and wait for an attack in the studio he was subletting. Once they'd made it there safely (and since there didn't seem to be any demons ready to jump out at them just yet - one, two, three... okay, still no demons) Tony had time to call in reinforcements.

( Tony dialed Merlin's number. )

[Continued here, here, and here.]

It was break week, so Tony was still in bed when the phone rang. He groped for it on the nightstand, stared blearily at the Darkest Night office number on the screen and pressed Talk. “Amy?” he guessed. “I still don’t remember what happened to that trombone.” ( Phone call from Vancouver )

[Yes, he's leaving! But just for the summer. Anyone who wants to say good-bye is welcome to have gotten a call or just happen to stop by.]

Tony had planned to watch Darkest Night as usual tonight, until he realized which episode was airing. He didn't think he could watch Nikki Waugh onscreen without remembering how she looked when he'd found her body. He knew he wouldn't be able to do the usual watch-and-mock knowing why the guest star had been replaced with a different actress halfway through filming.

Instead, he took his chips and pop back to his room so he'd have something to snack on while reading the latest Elizabeth Fitzroy novel. Maybe if he got into the book, it'd keep him from thinking about the sound her head had made when it hit the pavement.

[Door and post are open! He could use the distraction.]