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Tweak says, "OMGZ BOB HAZ NO FEETS!?"

Adam Milligan (notdewyeyed) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-05-21 23:21:00

Entry tags:

adam milligan, crowley

WHO: Adam Milligan and Crowley
WHAT: Having a few drinks and a discussion.
WHEN: Evening
WHERE: Some place that isn't the Roadhouse.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Adam wasn't stupid. He knew there was something going on with the people he knew. He wasn't blind. He saw the way they looked at him. The way they acted differently than they once had. He didn't know what was going on but there was definitely something. Either they knew something he didn't know, were about to do something he was aware of, or had already done something and were hoping he didn't find out. Whatever the case was, there was most assuredly something he wasn't being told and he didn't like it, not even a little.

Unfortunately, there also wasn't much he could do about it. Sure, he could try to press someone into telling him something. Dean probably wouldn't ever budge but he was willing to bet Sam would, if pressed hard enough. Dawn too, especially if he took advantage of the sleepless nights she was likely still getting courtesy of a newborn. There were other people who would probably tell him things too but, really, those two were the highest on his list.

However for some reason Adam hadn't decided to speak to either Sam or Dawn about this. Instead he'd simply kept it to himself, observing without commenting, and had decided the best way to spend his Saturday night was not with his newborn daughter, or the mother of his child, or the brother who might offer him answers. He wasn't even with the brother that probably wouldn't tell him jack. No, he was at the bar, having a drink, and had every intention of being there until he was told to leave and poured himself into bed sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

He had opted against the Roadhouse, too, not wanting to deal with any of the Harvelle family on their own turf not to mention the whole pesky drinking under age thing that would probably get him in trouble with the non-locals running a legitimate business. No, this was definitely better. If someone wandered absently into this little hole-in-the-wall place, that was all well and good, but the Roadhouse wasn't where he felt like drowning his sorrows at the moment. Not that he really had any sorrows. In fact, Adam didn't have much of anything in the way of negative emotions. Sure there was a bit of anger at times, and he had the ability to get frustrated, but sorrow and sadness? Loss and mourning? Those were no more than distant memories to him and, frankly, Adam was grateful for it. So much of his time after dying had been focused on the loss of his mother, the pain he felt at her death. That was gone now. So was the worry of what would happen if he ever returned home, what his family thought of the fact that he had an infant daughter whose birth he'd had to be told to go to by his boss, or much of anything else that Adam was now considering to be quite a hindrance.

Really, he wasn't sure why he was feeling this way now but he definitely appreciated how clear his mind was now without all of those bad thoughts and worries to bog him down. And so what if everybody else was talking about him or was uncomfortable around him? Life had never been better, as far as he was concerned, and it was with that last, fairly cheerful thought that he lifted his beer for an invisible toast with himself then raised it to his lips for a long swig.

It was just as he was finishing up his swallow that someone approached the barstool beside him and sat down. Curious, Adam glanced in the person's direction before tipping his head in greeting. It wasn't a local, of course, but the two beers he'd put down before the one he was on now meant he wouldn't tell the newcomer to get lost, either.

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minesbigger
2011-05-22 03:08 pm UTC (link)

Every once in a while, Crowley strayed from his usual Saturday night routine. He'd left the Casino the his preferred staff's capable hands, and wandered out in to the city. His wandering was deliberate, rather than aimless. He had a certain fellow in mind, whom he wanted to see up close and personal.

The youngest of John Winchester's three boys intrigued Crowley simply by existing. The by product of a short lived relationship with a sympathetic nurse, Adam Milligan grew up without knowledge of his brothers, or the life they, and their father, led. He'd been brutally murdered by ghouls, raised from the grave by angels with nefarious purposes. The boy who had no working knowledge of the supernatural had been dragged right in the middle of the most epic battle of heaven and hell.

Crowley assumed it would be fair to say, he'd lost. He'd lost on so many levels it wasn't even funny. Crowley'd seen some pretty fucked up shit in his time, people who had scraped the bottom and come out with nothing more than scars to show for it. Adam had to be the most fucked up case Crowley had ever seen, and it might have been avoided, at least in part, if his father had only told him the truth somewhere along the way, instead of playing it safe with base ball games and birthday cakes.

Well, no matter. Adam Milligan was Colligo's lone soulless resident. The locals came close, and it was entirely possible their souls weren't exactly soulful, but they weren't hollowed out beings. They weren't refugees from Hell, half risen, with the better half left behind. Crowley had seen first hand the damage done to the soul, it was so vile and horrific that Crowley hadn't even dared touch it. He'd peered at it, sitting in his safe, lacking luster, lacking any kind of light. It was a sick, dead, twisted thing certainly not fit for human consumption.

Not even Hell's self proclaimed king would ram that diseased thing down someone's throat. Not even a Winchester's throat. So it sat taking up space in his office, protected from the grabby hands of Colligo's finest, who might see soullessness as some kind of curse, who might think it better to have a soul, no matter what the cost.

A new suggestion had come to Crowley's table. The possibility of providing the soulless boy with a brand new soul. He wasn't entirely sure where this new soul was supposed to come from, but that was an issue to be confronted at a later date. His sole purpose this evening was to have a chat with the potential recipient.

Adam had chosen a hole in the wall establishment, the sort of dive his brothers were not exactly known to frequent. They preferred the Roadhouse where the drinks were free, and the service was provided by self named family. Quaint, but hardly what a soulless young man would seek out. Crowley couldn't blame the boy for that.

"Hello, Mr Milligan," Crowley nodded as Adam turned to acknowledge him. "It's a lovely evening, isn't it?"

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notdewyeyed
2011-05-22 06:09 pm UTC (link)

It was weird. Most of the time Adam had spent at Michael's vessel was little more than a blur to him but, every so often, things would come to him that he had no way of knowing. The only thing he could attribute the random bursts of information to was the fragments of memories he still had of Michael invading his mind. It was rarely anything very useful but sometimes, with enough of the whispers combined together, he could form enough of a picture to not be quite as out of the loop in all this supernatural crap as he'd once been.

In this particular instance, for example, he knew the being beside him went by Crowley. He knew Crowley was the next in line for Hell with Lucifer out of the way. He knew that Crowley was also much more powerful than he let on, particularly in this city filled with enemies, and he knew that Crowley had not happened into this bar on accident. Now some of that - especially the King of Hell business - had to have come from Michael. The rest, though, was mostly Adam just using common sense and none of it was any reason for him to outright ignore his new drinking companion. So with another drag off his beer, he replied.

"It's Adam," he said first. Being called 'Mr. Milligan' made him feel like he was back in school and in trouble. Not that he was going to share that fact with Crowley. "And yeah. It's a great night." He finished off his beer, motioning for the bartender to give him another one, before turning partially in his stool to face the being beside him.

"So," he said flatly, with a touch of a bemused smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "we both know you didn't just wander in here to have a drink of crappy, watered-down booze. Something I can help you with or are you just here to gawk at me like everybody else has been doing when they don't think I'm paying attention?"

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minesbigger
2011-05-22 08:10 pm UTC (link)

"Adam, right, yes, of course. Adam." Crowley rolled the young man's name off his tongue. Perhaps he'd compromise and give the kid a nickname. He had so many on hand for his giant of a brother, but he'd never really had need to find a pet name for the youngest of John Winchester's boys.

"You're right, by the way," Crowley nodded. "Name's Crowley. I run the casino resort called Eden. I am a demon." He tilted his head. There was no show of black demon eyes, no red or white or yellow orbs. Crowley wasn't in to all that flashy flash business. Either that or he wasn't exactly what he seemed, but he wasn't going to waste time thinking on that now.

"I wouldn't call it gawking, from where I'm standing. More like...research. I've a keen interest in your paternal bloodline." Well, that much was true. He seemed to be the only player on the board who made a point to not underestimate Dean and Sam Winchester. The boys, all three of them, kept a fairly low profile in Colligo, but then Crowley had opted for that same, so he couldn't fault them for that. Low profiles hardly meant they were scheming and planning behind closed doors...did it?

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notdewyeyed
2011-05-23 01:36 am UTC (link)

As Crowley introduced himself, Adam couldn't help but be faintly amused. If Lucifer had downplayed his position in Hell as much as this guy did, he probably could have gotten Sam to agree within the first few minutes of their meeting. At the very least, he would have slipped in below the radar for quite some time.

Then again, subtlety had never really been Lucifer's style. And if that wasn't an embittered thought left over from Michael's time inside his head, Adam didn't know what was. Shaking the thought away, he let the downplayed introduction slide for the time being and focused on what else was being said. Not that it was much better. In fact, Adam very nearly groaned out loud at the thought of it.

"Yeah," he drawled as he raised his beer to his lips once more. "You, the rest of Hell, and pretty much all of Heaven too. Seriously, man, don't you guys have anything better to do?"

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minesbigger
2011-05-24 11:12 pm UTC (link)

"I can't speak for the rest of them. As for me, no." Crowley shrugged. "Not especially. Not tonight, anyway. You lucky dog, you're the sole recipient of my attentions." Crowley laughed, shook his head. "Sole recipient. That's funny, and you don't even know it."

He was certain he'd peaked Adam's curiosity. The question was, would he tell the kid his lot in life, or would he play it vague and leave the boy guessing? He could go either way. Of course, he made a point to not piss of the Winchesters, not because he was afraid they'd come after him, but because he really wasn't interested in creating civil unrest within their shared prison of Colligo. He rather liked when people just sort of got along, or kept their epic battles to their own miserable little circles. Fighting in the streets wasn't good for business, after all.

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notdewyeyed
2011-05-25 04:25 am UTC (link)

Well, Crowley was definitely right at least. Not only did he not really get whatever the joke was but he was definitely curious what the King of Hell could possibly want with him. All he could decide, really, was that whatever it was it probably wasn't going to be very good. Which was no big surprise. Since pretty much the second that ghoul had showed up and eaten him for being a Winchester on his dad's side, his life had been a series of one not good thing after another. This really shouldn't be much different.

However unlike with the angels, Adam couldn't think of a thing Crowley could manipulate him with that would make him do, well, much of anything. His mother was already dead and there wasn't any way he was falling for tricks about her again and he frankly didn't care enough about anyone in the city to have them used against him either. So unless Crowley had figured out how to send someone from Colligo, to Hell, without getting his ass handed to him for breaking the rules or something, Adam wasn't too worried.

But he was definitely curious.

Rolling the bottle of beer between his fingers, watching the condensation slip down the label that was slowly starting to peel in the corners, he cut his gaze to Crowley and arched an eyebrow slightly. "Right," he remarked flatly. "Lucky me. Nevermind that the first time someone took interest in my blood line it was to literally eat me and the second time was to trick me into agreeing to be worn like a cheap suit. I'm definitely the lucky one."

With a soft sigh and shake of his head, he set the bottle upright on the bar and turned a bit in his stool to face Crowley more directly. "But fine, I'll bite. Why is the King of Hell interested in little old insignificant me?"

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minesbigger
2011-05-28 03:36 pm UTC (link)

"I guess it isn't obvious," Crowley said with a shrug. "But you, Adam Milligan, you are quite the anomaly." He tilted his head and smiled a wicked sort of smile. For a stuffy literary agent, the meat suit Crowley had procured really did have a demon-friendly side. But that was neither here nor there, when Adam was his focus.

"You survived hell, for one." Surviving hell was something of a contradiction. Once a person went down below, death was kind of off the table. Eternal torment was the name of the game unthinkable pain and restoration o normal so it could start all over again. But for a human such as Adam to crawl out of the pit, that was truly extraordinary. Adam hadn't been in the normal hell, he'd been in the deepest circle of hell, he'd been right in the middle of Lucifer's cage.

Crowley sipped his drink. He could either tell Adam why everyone's been so on edge about him, or h could keep his mouth shut. Sad, that his brothers had opted to keep the truth from him. Crowley didn't think that was right, and it certainly wasn't in Adam's best interest. Sure, the kid could use the fact he lacked a soul as an excuse to go on a killing spree, but really? As little as Crowley knew about the youngest Winchester spawn, he didn't think Adam was the type to take that kind of information and run with it. He was more likely to take it in and analyse it from every possible direction.

"Problem is," Crowley continued, "whoever raised you did a shit job of it. They left your soul behind."

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notdewyeyed
2011-05-28 07:38 pm UTC (link)

For a long moment, Adam didn't say a word. He simply sat on his stool, studying the peeling label on his beer, and tried to figure out the best thing to say. For some reason he couldn't quite identify, he knew Crowley was telling the truth. It certainly explained why he'd been feeling so... well, good lately. It also explained why he didn't care about the things he once had, or at least not with the same level of intensity that he knew he used to care.

In fact, the longer he thought about it, the more sense it made. Him surviving hell without having any adverse affects, especially considering the area where he'd been trapped, had never quite added up for him. He hadn't questioned it - why would he? - but he'd certainly thought about it more than a few times since arriving in Colligo.

Finally, nearly a full minute after Crowley had spoken, Adam slowly nodded his head and took another long drink from his beer. "I guess that explains some stuff," he agreed simply. Then he turned a bit, his gaze dragging away from his beer and to Crowley, his blue eyes studying the King of Hell closely as he questioned, "So why are you bothering to tell me? You have to know that I'm not going to particularly care."

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