i_lovemybentley Who Needs Eternity? [Progo]
Crowley was learning how to get around the City. Certain places didn't move, much if at all, and others seemed to spring up when they were needed. A bit of willpower, and it would take you anywhere you wanted to be.
And Anthony J. Crowley had plenty of willpower.
He was going for a stroll. A rarity for him, a creature who had preferred four wheels before the wheel had even been invented. But it was an amusing way to test this newfound theory. Deliberately not using his own powers, but merely will and desire, he managed to find, in order, a pub, a car dealership, a moviehouse, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker (to his own amusement, they'd even shown up in a row), and finally, a wine shop.
It wasn't that he couldn't simply manifest whatever vintage he preferred. Crowley knew Aziraphale's unerringly proper morals would insist that a gift be genuine. Crowly lingered outside for a moment, fingers rapping themselves on his chin, as he considered what year and vintage the angel would prefer.
From: i_amangels Date: 04/24/2006 20:34:43
He was staying invisible forever, and forever would last until he was back at Jesse's apartment. If that girl was there, forever would last a little longer. Unlike Crowley, Proginoskes had no reason for being out other than that Earth was a strange and new place. He didn't want anything but to go home, and you couldn't very well buy that in a store.
He wafted along invisibly, watching people argue and fight and obsess and talk with wide, invisible eyes. Well, when he was invisible, he didn't really have eyes, but it was the easiest way to think of it.
Then.
There was a wash of cold, and he flinched invisibly, too. The Echthroi weren't here. Not like this. They were inside everyone already, making people angry and dark and glowering, but they weren't just... there.
But it was so cold. Chaos swirled at the edges of his invisible feathers, threatening to reach in - and Proginoskes turned into a very visible whisp of flame at the mere thought of the touch of it.
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 04/24/2006 20:43:06
Thankfully, Crowley happened to be immune to fire. It was that burn of divine rightousness that he hadn't felt in a long time.
A very long time. He'd been more accustomed to Aziraphale than he'd realized. The angel had stopped burning him centuries ago, sometime when BC was turning over into AD.[1]
Crowley took a step back from the burning, raigins an eyebrow, and hissed nervously. "Down, boy," he said, raising his hands. "I'm just walking. About to be buying some wine. Nothing particularly diabolical."
[1 - Of course, in the big BC/AD switch, you couldn't just turn your watch back. You had to go out and buy a whole new watch. This irritated many people, most of whom didn't know who this AD fellow was anyway.]
From: i_amangels Date: 04/24/2006 21:15:18
Oh. Wine. Spirits. Alcohol. Proginoskes knew all about alcohol, particularly how it reacted to fire, and that memory promptly turned the flame into invisibility again.
His nonexistant feathers rustles anxiously. Eyes would've been appearing and disappearing rapidly, an all-too-obvious sign of his nervousness, had he been visible. He wasn't, which did a lot for his image.
He would've blinked, too. Echthroi didn't sound like that, unless this was another test... but then the creature would've been more well-disguised. Perhaps. What do you want with this place?
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 04/24/2006 21:29:36
Okay, this was getting more interesting as time went on.
Crowley glanced at the shop. "I was thinking along the lines of a Chateau Lafitte, 1875. The old boy can't be upset if I just happen to find one around here."
It didn't phase him that the... whatever... was speaking in his head. There were plenty of entities capable of that. It did bother him that he couldn't...
Crowley slipped off his sunglasses with a sigh, and let his eyes adjust to their usual abilities. They fell upon a mass of feathers and eyes, eyes that seemed to wink in and out of existence as he watched.
"Well, hello," he said. "You seem somewhat familiar... have I met you before?"
At least the feeling was familiar. Had they changed the standard template for angelic visions upon the mortal realm[2] again? He hoped not. Crowley much preferred the human form to the symbolic stuff they'd used previously.
He wondered if Aziraphale had gotten a memo this time.
[2 - Angels (or, specifically, Raphael) had appeared in a more humanized version of themselves in the Garden of Eden. After that, for a time they appeared in animal form, such as a horse or, more commonly, a dove (since it enabled them to keep both their wings and the color white, which was popular at that time). Around the time of Egypt, things had become symbolic, with burning bushes, sulphur raining from the heavens, and immaterial plagues sweeping the earth. However, since the aforementioned BC/AD crossover, Heaven's main field agent was in the guise of a mortal, more or less consistently as a British bookshop owner.]
From: i_amangels Date: 04/25/2006 20:52:14
Maybe it wasn't an Ecthros. They were never so genial, no matter how close they might be to triumph - and if this one was an Ecthros, it was nowhere near to triumph. Not in the terms of the Echthroi. Nothing less than the destruction of the planet would do that.
Invisible eyes blinked simultaneously, and when Proginoskes 'spoke' again, he seemed uncertain. No, I don't think so.
If they had, one of them shouldn't exist anymore, or at least, the other creature (not a person, no matter how human-shaped it was) would be trying to kill him by now.
Ecthros? he tried tentatively.
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 04/26/2006 08:01:30
It sounded like a question. It sounded like a name? "No. Crowley." He wondered if anyone in Heaven knew his name by now. Before he'd shed his snake skin for good, it had been 'Crawley', but that name didn't suit a being that walked on two legs. Back in the Old Days, he'd had a different name, a rather splendid name if he thought so himself, but Below had decreed that angelic names be shed and replaced.
He didn't think so. He may have been considered Hell's main field agent, but it was an unofficial title, with no power behind it. He'd simply been here the longest, and was pretty good at bringing in souls.
The entity he was... communicating with certainly felt angelic, even if it didn't look like what he was used to.
He raised an eyebrow and tried anyway. "Angel?"
From: i_amangels Date: 04/27/2006 12:46:50
Crowley was a new sort of creature then - unless he really was an Ecthros and he was just lying. It wasn't impossible, though from Proginoskes's experience, they weren't this subtle. By now, something would've gone wrong.
There might've been the flicker of visible wings, feathered edges unfolding before folding into nothingness again. Cherubim. But not of human creation.
Perhaps Crowley was one of the Earth-Echthroi, the fallen angels, as he'd told Meg. A human construct that looked human. It made sense.
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 04/27/2006 12:59:08
"Ah, Cherubim." Crowley nodded. "That makes more sense. I've a... bit of an aquainance who is a Principality. But one doesn't talk about such things anymore, I've heard."
He opened the door to the shop and glanced back at the cherubim. "Care to come along?"
Since it hadn't attacked him yet, perhaps it could be reasoned with. Aziraphale was the only angel he'd met so far that was reasonable, but that didn't mean he was the only one there was.
And Crowley was an optimist at heart.
From: i_amangels Date: 04/30/2006 14:09:37
He had no idea what was meant by a Principality. Rather, he had an idea, but he was fairly certain he was misinterpreting some human thing again, and Proginoskes would rather pretend that he knew exactly what was going on than ask for clarification.
Okay. It was a human expression, but 'yes' didn't quite convey the sense of apathy he felt about the decision. What are you?
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 05/02/2006 06:38:31
Crowley glanced back at the creature, furrowing his brow. It was an angel, or a Cherubim, as it claimed to be. It should have known what he was immediately.
But it didn't. Which was interesting.
"I'm going to hope that, as we're having a fairly pleasant parley at the moment, that once I do explain to you the exact nature of one such as myself, we won't suddenly begin a brawl." He grinned. "This is a new suit, after all. And... I doubt the shop's owner would appreciate it."
Maybe the Cherubim could be reasonable.
From: i_amangels Date: 05/03/2006 16:12:33
From his understanding of what a brawl was, Proginoskes was fairly certain it was physically impossible for him to get into one, so Crowley had nothing to worry about there. He wasn't willing to sacrifice his dignity in order to bat at some human-shaped creature with his wings.
All bazillion of them.
There will not be a brawl, he replied flatly. If he were to do anything antagonistic, it would involve a large fire, and possibly fleeing in the smoke.
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 05/03/2006 16:39:38
Feeling that they perhaps needed a bit of privacy for this exchange, Crowley approached the counter near the rear of the store.
The shopkeeper looked up. "Hullo," he said, in a pleasant voice. "Another bottle of the Reisling, Mr. Crowley?"
"In a moment," the demon said, and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the man's eyes glazed over, and his entire posture took on a dreamy, half-asleep appearance.
"That's better." Crowley turned back to the Cherubim and slipped off his sunglasses, to let the creature see the slitted, snake-like eyes. "I'm one of the Fallen."
From: i_amangels Date: 05/03/2006 17:39:32
Proginokes unfolded into visible existance, one wing after another, until there were five eyes blinking gently open and closed, all seemingly at random even though there was never a time where two were closed.
He spun a little, and a mirror to Crowley's snake eyes stared at him. The Echthroi had never used snakes - in fact, they'd been afraid of them, the last time Proginoskes had encountered them on Earth.
A human idea, he decided. You're not of the same source as I.
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 05/03/2006 17:57:26
Crowley grinned to see the snake eyes on the Cherubim. "Maybe not," he said, slipping the sunglasses back on. "But close enough for government work, it seems."
He folded his arms over his chest and tilted his head. "You got a name? Or are you just Cherubim?"
Being seen as a human idea didn't bother Crowley. As a matter of fact, he delighted in the thought. Humans. Such creative things. They were inventive buggers, you had to grant them that.
From: i_amangels Date: 05/04/2006 01:25:53
Proginoskes.
The snake eye blinked closed, and a cat-like one blinked open. That one was replaced by a hazel - and human - eye, and then supported by an owl's large round eye. Proginoskes found this creature rather interesting. He still wasn't entirely sure Crowley wasn't an Ecthros, but the world hadn't opened up and swallowed him yet, so there was a good chance that the creature was speaking the truth.
You work for humans?
From: i_lovemybentley Date: 05/09/2006 08:23:43
Crowley laughed at the question. "No. Not exactly. More like my job is to make their lives more difficult." With a shrug, he turned back to the store clerk and waved a hand. The man blinked slowly, coming out of the hypnotic sleep.
"A bottle of the Reisling, please, and perhaps a Chateau Lafitte, '75, and that's eighteen seventy-five, if you can dig that up, there's a good lad." The clerk blinked a few times, and headed for the back room to look over his supply without a glance at the Cherubim.
"Proginoskes," the demon said, turning back to his odd-looking acquaintance. "Did you come here intentionally, or were you herded in like the rest of us?"
From: i_amangels Date: 05/09/2006 19:16:05
But they made you. Proginoskes was finding this idea a little hard to comprehend. It was a completely natural thing to want an opposite, to balance things, but if given a choice, why would any creature want to make something that wouldn't help them.
The Echthroi sent me. My version of a fallen angel. They created a void, and I... fell in. I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. He 'sounded' almost plaintive, but it bothered him to not have a purpose, or a job.