text ; 8/10

[demonicmiracle]

right, cant say im much for mass communication without a character limit but needs must. im new in town, got a couple questions, figured i could crowdsource the answers

1. how have you lot not gone mental from boredom? there's got to be something to do around here that isnt poking about that miserable other island

[This is to say that while Crowley is, in fact, genuinely bored, he's also sort of eager to help around the island (he likes feeling useful, don't @ him about it) but if he actually admitted that out loud he'd immediately crumble to dust, because he's a demon, and demons aren't helpful.]

2. follow up to point 1, has anyone got a good grasp of what animals can be hunted? ive seen flowering sheep and furbies and i dont wanna waste energy on something thats not edible

3. bad idea to swim in the lake? yes or no?

4. ill trade my left arm for a bloody tshirt if anyones got a spare

[Not technically a question, but please, he's dying squirtle.]

cheers

Comments

[postictal]

yeah well
these gods aren't all powerful
i don't think any of them have been
haven't been able to kill us permanently yet and some of them have tried

[demonicmiracle]

[On one hand: good to know. If he has to fist fight a god behind a 7/11 at least he might have a chance of winning.

On the other hand:]

uhhhhhh
could i ask you to elaborate on that last point

[postictal]

well we killed a god once
the storyteller helped

[demonicmiracle]

[Oh it's

gonna be like that, huh.]

sure
cool
you killed a god
thats a thing that happens

[postictal]

bliss
they trapped us all in dreams where we were perfectly happy
it was killing us
so the storyteller had us think bad thoughts and burn them to death
and then they smited them with paper and ink or something

[demonicmiracle]

how sure are we that these things are actually gods
not just something powerful playing at being gods

[postictal]

could be that too
but i dont know
they call themselves gods and the storyteller calls them gods and if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and gets power through worship like a duck

[demonicmiracle]

youve been here a while, havent you?

[This sort of seems like a segue, but he's going somewhere with it.]

[postictal]

two years now
so yeah

[demonicmiracle]

[Two years is nothing, really, not to him, but it's a long time for a human.]

how secure are these things?
think i could offer some observations, is all, but id rather not everyone know my business

[postictal]

probably not very
they're pretty new
best to talk in person

[demonicmiracle]

makes sense
dunno if you even want to hear half-baked theories from someone new but i figure, two years, youre probably about done with this place, especially with what ive heard about it
and id be curious to get your take since youve been here so long
so i can be around, if you wanna chat sometime

[postictal]

wouldn't be against it

you been to denny yet
you can find me there pretty much every day
if not there then the carpentry
that's next door

[demonicmiracle]

have been, stopped by briefly on my first day
ive got nowhere better to be right now, actually
ill pop round in if a bit if youll be there?

[postictal]

sure
i'll be around
just ask for tim

[Denny's the closest thing they've got to a social hub, at the moment. It's not really much, considering everything.]

[But true to his word, Tim is there. Sorting shit into baskets, taking inventory, doing all the standard maintenance that someone who's nominally in charge would be doing.]

[demonicmiracle]

[It doesn't take him long to get there, the only hold up being a brief back-and-forth with Aziraphale about whether this is a good idea. Crowley's the more hesitant of them, although that may have something to do with the fact Azirapahle has thoroughly blown his cover with a bunch of the people here.

Also, in general, mortals respond better to angels than they do to demons. But he's trying to be helpful and he's indulging his own curiosity at the same time, so it's probably a win-win.

Easy enough, then, to head to Denny, to get pointed to Tim, to greet the man with a little flick of his fingers in a gesture that could be a wave, if he'd committed to it.]

This whole set up is yours, then?

[He could introduce himself, but he figures he's pretty obvious, considering he said he was going to visit.]

[postictal]

[Tim glances up, takes in the guy as he enters. Dark glasses, dark apparel. Got an accent that Tim doesn't know how to place, other than "somewhere in Europe, probably." Older, for sure.]

[He nods, a vague reply.]

I just look after things.

[That's not really a refutation. It's not really true, either. He did renovate the place from the ruin it used to be, but he had help.]

Tim. You're who I was just talking to on the Stones, right?

[demonicmiracle]

[For sure older.

There's a thrum of anxious energy in him, so he leans himself against the nearest table rather than taking a seat. This way it's easier to start pacing if he feels the urge.]

That'd be me. Crowley, or Anthony, if you like. I'll answer to either.

[Both are his name, in that he chose them both and sticks by them, though most people he interacts with call him Crowley, purely out of the fact that most people he interacts with are other demons. Or Aziraphale.]

You wouldn't happen to be from Earth, would you? It'll save a lot of explanation.

[Tim looks human, but Crowley's quickly learning not to make assumptions.]

[postictal]

Nice to meet you, I guess.

[Crowley. Name doesn't ring any bells, but it wouldn't. He's just never met him, or any versions of him, before. Good to know.]

Yeah, Earth. Specifically the U.S., Alabama. Around...2014, I think.

[It speaks to how long he's been here that a) the question doesn't surprise him, and b) he has no problem trying to narrow down the timeframe some. Even if means having to explain that he's from Alabama, which isn't what Tim (or anyone) would call an ideal place to live.]

[demonicmiracle]

[Crowley's eyebrows go up briefly, as if he's going to protest that I guess — he's a delight, thank you — but he decides to let it go. Probably isn't the time for pride.]

Twenty-nineteen on my end, London. Or, well, I live in London, have done for most of the last few centuries but I'm from Heaven, originally.

[He says this very placidly, because that's probably the best way to deliver a line like that.

He could've said he's from Hell, that would be true, too. But he plans to talk about divinity and gods, so it seems a better to start right at the beginning, before the beginning, really. Especially since it's become clear from meeting Michael that not all demons were angels, once.]

[postictal]

[Don't take it personally, Crowley. Tim's flat affectation is just how he does it.]

Heaven.

...huh. Okay.

[On the list of things Tim's heard before, that's a first. He's...pretty sure he hasn't actually met any literal angels. He's met plenty of dead people, but none of them have much to say on what comes after, with a few notable exceptions. Most of them don't comment on an afterlife, namely because they don't get to see one. They just kind of end up in places like this.]

[Point blank, no mincing it.]

[Still, he's met gods. He's met demons. What's one more to add to the list of things that he probably wouldn't have believed were real?]

Well, you look good for your age.

[demonicmiracle]

[It's been a good couple millennia since Crowley has admitted any kind of supernatural nature, and this is going fairly well. Better than it did with Jesus, at least.]

The trick is a good moisturiser, can't go wrong with that.

[Not the best joke he's ever told, but he's working on the fly here.]

Anyway, s'why I'm having a hard time buying that these things are gods. The Almighty's never needed worship, and can't be killed, no matter what Lucifer might've thought to try. I get that I'm not, you know, an expert on gods outside the one that made me, turns out the universe is a whole lot different than how I thought it was, but — a powerful enough being could play at god. I could make a go at it, on a good day.

[postictal]

[It...sure is something to know that the overly evangelical bullshit that populated most of your state actually holds some weight, in some universes. He's still not sure about his own.]

[But then again, no one is.]

I mean, yours is...god, singular. When it's a whole bunch of little gods, maybe the power gets broken up. They're all gods of something. They only really get powerful when people are feeding them whatever they're a god of. Like Bliss.

[demonicmiracle]

[It's an interesting concept, that there's some kind of... limit? On divine power. One God gets all of it, a bunch of smaller ones have to share it out.]

You must all trust the Storyteller then, seems you're all happy to trade stories for what you want.

[It's not quite judgement in his tone, maybe something more like wariness. Trusting a god seems foolish, after all he's been through.]

[postictal]

[At that, Tim snorts.]

I wouldn't call it "trust." I'd call it using the resources we've got. Some gods will do you a solid if you do them one in return. That's about as far as I'm willing to go.

[He wouldn't have been able to make Denny, or establish the carpentry, without the help of one or two gods, after all.]