maskormenacelogs | OPEN | Early November Catch-all

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OPEN | Early November Catch-all

WHO: Adam Young & you
WHERE: Nonah, De Chima, other places optional
WHEN: Early November
WHAT: Free range child wanders around large cities scavenging for random items, building a forest clubhouse, going to class, and musing vaguely about the possible destruction of this world
WARNINGS: N/a at this moment

⌈De Chima⌋
Should anyone notice, Adam seems to be spending a lot of time in De Chima lately. Often accompanied by Dog, he seems to step out of the city often and hang around closer to the suburbs. Or, more specifically, when he's on his way to the woods.

Even on rainy, muddy days, he's walking along with a heavy backpack and a raincoat, down the streets and towards the trees. He's a common sight here, if anyone's ever noticed him, and he's very clearly got something on his mind.

Should anyone approach him, he won't mind a chat. Or if you just want to pet the cute small dog, that's fine too.
--

⌈School⌋
Despite everything that's been going on, school perseveres. Which is a bit disappointing, really. If snow days can cause a school to close down, you'd think that the gradual disintegration of reality and the constant unnatural changes could at least afford them an afternoon off. Still, he can't complain much.

The young boy is more preoccupied with making some sort of list every so often, in class, at lunch, in the hall, as well as scribbling in his notebooks, ideas and concepts for his personal project in the making.

If anyone looks over his shoulder, they'll see what look like ideas for a banner, and some sort of chair and structure. Not a house, but something more simple. Like a tree house, or a camp.

Feel free to ask him - he's been meaning to ask if anyone would like to join him.
--

⌈CLOSED for Crowley⌋
With all the commotion going on out there and in the network, one thing's for certain: something very terrible is supposedly going to maybe happen sometime in the foreseeable future, but the residents of this household seem to be otherwise preoccupied with their own things.

Adam, for one, already has some of his time taken over by things like school, his job at the pet shop and the like. Most of his time is spent outside the house, with the occasional check up by his celestial caretakers, but he's been spending more time out there than usual.

Today, however, he's around. The project he's been working on is turning out to be more of a challenge than he expected, so he needs some help, and Crowley happens to be the first person he finds.

"Hey. Can I ask you something?" Says the boy, which is certainly something Crowley has heard many, many times by now.
--

⌈CLOSED for Gabriel⌋
Well, it's a nice day today. The sun is shining, despite the Autumn showers lately. It's not too cold or too hot. There don't seem to be shadow people or ghost trains or people possessed by strange elemental spirit things about. No random ruins with complicated old machinery and robots (though those were fun). Besides the general feeling of dread that's gently permeating the unseen background, things are quiet, and it's the perfect afternoon to take your pets for a walk.

So that's what Adam's doing. In one hand, two leashes: one tethered to the now moderately well-known Dog, and the other, less conventionally, attached to a harness worn by Bubsy the jackalope.

He can't help but to look around, half expecting something weird to pop up. It's become more and more common, so he wouldn't be entirely surprised if anything did. What would it be now? Giant bugs? People breaking into dance? Maybe things turning into other things? Who knows.

Then, he spots him, up ahead. Hard not to, really. For all that he simply looks like a person, the angel is somehow very hard not to notice.

----
⌈Others?⌋
[OOC:Feel free to suggest other prompts, or to add your own below. You can PM me here or contact me at

skree.]

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[She. He doesn't know what his pet wants to be called yet. STaring down at the creature he focuses a little too intensely.]

I really can't believe I thought that they were abominations. Ever since coming here my head doesn't feel like it's own straight and you know about-

[He gestures. About her. Then.]

I was cruel to you and I am sorry. I don't want to do that again to you, or anyone.

[Really hard to tell if he's talking about being possessed? Or if he's talking about the apocalypse.]

You're just a child and I was acting like a child. I should have known better.

[ Adam is...surprised. After all of their interactions, apologies are not something he's come to expect from Gabriel. In fact, one of the least expected things. And yet, here they are.

Dog looks up at them, with all the non-expressiveness of a little mutt. But, perhaps, even he knows of apologies, like that time he almost ran away from his master. They're fine now, of course. Or, perhaps, Dog knows nothing about any of this, and is simply waiting to resume their walk.

There's a lingering silence for a few seconds. Adam doesn't question what the apology is about, and he doesn't question if it means that it'll change anything if and when they get home, if it changes anything about how Gabriel feels about the Earth. It doesn't matter. None of it matters. ]

It's fine. [ Is the answer, casual as always. He looks down at Bubsy and pets her spotted fur. ]

This place is pretty weird. But it's weird for everyone. None of us are here because they want to. It's not so bad when you look at it right, though.

[ New Apocalypse notwithstanding. ]

[Dragging big hands and long fingers over his face he stares at his shoes before staring at Adam.]

...I have done many things. I did many things that are terrible before coming here and I'm still not convinced this isn't punishment somehow.

[He fixes the boy with an unnatural stare completely oblivious to the fact that he's - a child.

All human beings are children in their own way. All capable. All beneath his level but they still...exist. And are nice. And this child is sort of offering comfort. And.

He sighs.]

You're smart. It almost makes me glad you reset things. Now that we've had chances to speak you're not as much of a brat as I thought.

[pause. And he offers him a doglike look, like he's discovered something new.]

That is meant to be a joke. You're much kinder then a brat.

[ Adam simply watches him, staring back at him much like he did that day back at the airbase, but with a lot less uncertainty. A lot less confusion. Not that Adam could claim to understand everyone’s motivations in any personally detailed manner. What he is is unflinching, which does not mean he isn’t sympathetic - at least over how Gabriel sounds right now.]

Thanks. [ Maybe it comes off a little bland, but it’s still his response.

He looks at Bubsy again. She still hasn’t moved, well settled into being petted.]

If it was a punishment, then why are good people here too?

I don’t think that’s really it.

What do you think it is.

[he tilts his head curious, staring at the jackalope before-]

I'm very curious.

[ He thinks. And, then, he simply shrugs. ]

I don't think it's anything.

I think we're just here because someone did something wrong.

[Gabriel frowns at that.]

...That sounds stupid.

Why aren't you angry?

[ Now that is a great question.

And Adam answers with a shrug.]

I am, a little. But getting all mad about it won’t help fix things.

Lots of people want to go back home, I bet.

[ He seems to eye Gabriel for a moment. Almost cautious.]

...if we go back [ He starts, no longer petting the rest jackalope in his arms.] Are you going to try to end the world again?

[If.

The If makes Gabriel shudder because-]

Of course we're going to go back. You're a child, you have your mother and father looking for you and I'm going back because She wouldn't leave me here alone.

[Do you know what it is to be truly alone Adam? To really truly be alone? The look on Gabriel's face might be profoundly uncomfortable because he looks like a grown man who looks scared and sad and terrified all at once. He doesn't look normal.]

Aziraphale and Crowley have each other and they are welcome to each other as far as we're concerned but I-

[Sorry. He wants to answer your question (maybe) but he is suddenly panicstricken]

she wouldn't - [He laughs, harshly, panicked.] She wouldn't leave me here, and you - you miss your friends right? Like I do. I'm sorry to bring them up but...

No one. No one should be alone.

[If only Adam knew that Aziraphale might have several things to say about that.]

[ Adam watches as Gabriel completely and utterly fails to answer his question. And as the adult man-shaped creature starts to unravel in front of him yet again, although he seems to get a bit closer to hitting some sort of limit every time he does it.

Adam's expression doesn't really change. And he isn't going to repeat his question. There's no point. ]

Nobody has to. There's tons of people around. [ Is the simple response Gabriel gets. ]

Nothing's going to change if you just keep worrying about it.

[the archangel's response is a suspicious look because he doesn't believe you and maybe he is terrible enough to be abandoned because if this was a test-

And he failed -

He's always thought he'd known if he had been though. That some part of Crowley's behavior would be made more clear. But if it wasn't some sort of sudden change or physical alteration or-

Breathing. He closes his eyes and calms himself and folds his hands in his lap.]

I'm sorry. You scared me just now. At least when Crowley fell he had people who could share in his suffering but it-

[he holds up a hand more for himself then the boy] you asked. So I'll answer about the world. I don't know.

And I want you to think about that from my point of view because I almost died recently so I've had some time to try and see it from a human point of view, or at least begin to comprehend it.

[completely unaware of the bombshell he just dropped his voice slips into a school teacher tone.]

One. It's not entirely my call. Two. No matter what I say? It could happen without me. However much power I have, I can't go against her even if I wanted to. 3. If I said no there's nothing to prevent the other side from trying it anyway.

[he points]

Ask Crowley about his former coworkers. Ask them what they're really like.

[ Adam simply stares up at him and the archangel drops a lot of information on him once more. But the former antichrist is unmoving. The answers aren't entirely satisfying, but he didn't really expect them to be. They just feel like deflecting, because, while Adam asked him a direct question about him, Gabriel responded about the big picture.

And Adam doesn't care about the big picture.]

I will. [ A bland, direct answer. He asks Crowley a lot of things. Crowley always answers. And Adam knows what Crowley thinks of other demons. ]

...how did you almost die? [ Because the angel obviously wants to talk about it, and Adam is a tiny bit curious. ]

Edited 2019-12-16 04:11 (UTC)

[He stares down at his shoes and remembers - pain.

When he looks at the boy - it's with pure human emotion. He's scared.]

I got into a fight with an enemy and they burned me alive.

[ Now that face, that's something he doesn't actually expect. It's not that he hasn't seen Gabriel nervous before - in fact, he's seen Gabriel a lot ever since the archangel showed up here, a surprising amount of times, even, giving him a wider scope of who the angel really is -, but genuine fear...that's new.

Kids might not know everything, but pure emotion is something that translates fairly easily.

Adam eyes Gabriel as if to look for burnt marks of some kind. ]

Really?

[He is being stripped bare here and he doesn't understand why - beyond this being some sort of punishment over Aziraphale.

And that is at the root of his wings. Of what Lilith did. And he is self centered enough to just still be facing the prospect of his own mortality so...

Showing his wings is a small sort of thing.

Leaning forward there's a pause and four gleaming white wings appear, they are white and perfect -

Until you get to the ends of them. The wings are charred, some blackened and he's missing feathers. If Adam were to have any sort of demonic sense, some awareness, he'd know what it looks like to see demonic fire damage. One curls, and if he weren't able to travel via lightning and teleportation - he wouldn't be able to fly.

They fold away and he ducks his head.]

...The only reason I'm still alive is because I was possessed by that foreign energy. When I was blue.

[ There's a lot Adam understands, and there's a lot he doesn't. He doesn't pick up on the details of demonic fire, the same way he doesn't immediately pick up on the fact that Gabriel continues to believe that everything that happens is centered around his own actions. He doesn't pick up on it because he doesn't fully know the archangel, for one, but also because, as far as he's concerned, most things don't have a point. Most things just happen. All that, and he is simply a child. He doesn't really think about these things.

While he looks at Gabriel's wings, he remembers that day Gabriel told him it's rude to show them to others. He didn't get that then, either, and he certainly doesn't get it now.

But Adam is a good kid. And Gabriel seems genuinely upset. That, in the very least, he does understand. ]

Did it hurt?

Gee. I don't know. Would it hurt if I lit you on fire-

[The anger fills his voice before he lowers his head and drops his wings into nothingness within him and swallows.]

...I'm sorry. Yes. It did hurt. It burned me. Nothing can kill an angel except hellfire and I think...

[He swallows] I know I deserved it but it still hurt.

[ Well, that was a quick apology. Guess he really is upset. ]

Did you deserve it? [ His words aren't really meant to sound comforting, just curious. ]

[His gaze shoots up sharply.]

...I think so?

[But still he had been protecting people, even if the sheer amount of power had terrified him. His mind was more on other horrors and on the terror of nothing.]

I couldn't handle the power. I'm -

Proud. It's my sin. And I was punished for it.

[ Adam continues to give him a bit of a strange look, curious, perhaps a little confused, but any kind of intimidation Gabriel had over him a couple of months ago is entirely gone.

The boy makes a face, thinking. ]

Why do you keep saying you're being punished for something? Who's punishing you?

You keep talking like someone's watching you all the time. Or that you're here because you did something. But everyone else is going through the same thing, and not everyone's done something terrible. Unless you're saying everyone did.

Maybe you deserve it, but not everything's about you.

[ It all just comes out, very simplistic logic, but the topic isn't unheard of between them. ]

I just don't get it.

[He can't get around this can he. His stomach rolls.]

No. I don't think everyone's done bad things.

I have. I know I have apparently and I thought I was doing the right thing but it turns out I'm not.

[He grits his teeth and growls like an animal for a moment, a strange unnatural inhuman noise before his eyes darken and he looks angry.]

I had a job to do. I had to start the apocalypse and you fucking ruined it.

[He straightens and thinks - because he knows. HE knows why it matters. Aziraphale. aziraphale Aziraphale and he hates that he doesn't want this boy to...

leave him.

His features fix on him with loathing.]

And I was wrong.

About all of it. I shouldn't have tried to do it. Do anything connected to it. And I'm sorry.

Now, leave me alone.

Edited 2019-12-23 02:57 (UTC)

[ There’s a rising sense of threat when Gabriel’s eyes darken. There’s definitely a sense of threat when he brings up, once again, the whole thing about Armaggedon.

Dog growls then. Adam doesn’t move, but he does frown.

He lets Gabriel finish talking, and, for a moment, does nothing. Then, simply, he shuffles on his feet.]

Fine. [ And there’s everything child like in how he says it, because of course there is. He’s a child.

He looks down at his companion, who stares up at his master.]

Come on, Dog.

[ And the boy walks past the archangel, sparing him only a glance, heading down the way through the park.

It’s not The Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of this world, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness that steps away from the archangel Gabriel. It’s just a boy, and his dog, who’s getting mighty tired of talking at someone who doesn’t listen and being talked down by adult, and is bound to some times have a little bit of an attitude about it.

But that’s his excuse.]

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OPEN | Early November Catch-all

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