p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley snapped his fingers as both he and Ezra walked onto E.D.E.N.'s lot, the guards let them through easy enough, his credentials were readily available, waiting for him at the guard's gates. Ezra suspected nothing continuing to inform him of everything he could think of, it was when they arrived at the door to Ezra's lab that he got nervous. Quickly he snapped, quietly, behind his back, Ezra looked at him tilting his head. "Where do you need to go, Crowley?" Looking up at the numbers above his door, he pointed. "Here, I thought you were walking me to the lab they put me in. Why?" Ezra looked up at the 6x3 marker, then back at Crowley, "Why would they put you here, did they mention it?" Crowley tilted his head just slightly with a smirk, "I was to fill a tank, for a serpent, of old. That was it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra nodded, with a bit of a huff, "I'm sorry, did I do something wrong, Ezra?" Ezra's spine stiffened for a moment before looking behind him, never locking eyes with Crowley, his eyes reflecting off the darkened sunglasses, his eyes flicked from the glasses to Crowley's pout. With a resigned sigh, he shook his head, "No, not you, dear boy, they always seem to forget to inform me of changes to my lab is all, it's not you. Actually better that it is you, I at least know who you are." Sliding his card through the slot, turning his key, the lab opened. Crowley followed, letting Ezra lead the way. Ezra entered, stopping dead in his tracks, Crowley not paying much attention ran right into the back of him, nearly knocking him over./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley's arm slid around his waist, pulling him back up against him, Ezra caught his breath as he had started to fall. Crowley didn't fail to realize the position they were in, roles were currently reversed, he tilted his head slightly down just above Ezra's ear, "Guess this makes my us even on debts, Ezra?" Ezra nodded his head, a shiver running the length of his spine, feeling the warmth of his name being breathed out over his ear. A wicked grin slithered over Crowley's face before he slid his arms around and away from Ezra's waist, purposely letting his fingers press just slightly against him. What was supposed to bother Ezra, had the same effect on the one doing it, ever thankful for his sunglasses whenever the angel was involved./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra stood back up, trying to shake the storm in his spine away; he looked between the two work areas, flicking his eyes to Crowley for a moment, then back to the work areas. "Everything okay, Ezra?" Ezra said nothing just nodded and looked to the very far right at the back of the room, a station had been set up, verdant, and greenery abounded there. "Oh, I see..." Ezra was abruptly cut off. BEEP...BEEP...BEEP! With a deep, defeated sigh, Ezra shook his head, "What's the beeping?" Crowley looked around as though he wasn't the one that had done it. "I don't know, I guess it's going to be a thing, get used to it, if you can." Ezra walked to his desk on the wrong side of the lab, looking at Anathemas work station where he should be, and smelling the new organic life in his lab./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley walked over to his "station" checking on his plants that he had snapped up to the lab. He needed to look busy at least, finally sitting, staying just behind some plants he spied on Ezra, who was doing his best to ignore the unexplainable. There were the beeps again, he watched as Ezra's head popped up every time they went off, he was amused. That was until Anathema walked in, seeing her work station, then seeing a new work station, she unraveled faster than Ezra, who was banging his head on his desk ever so gently as another wave of beeps happened. Anathema stalked over to Crowley, who was purposely ignoring her stares from across the room. "Anathema Device and you are?" she stuck her hand out, he could feel her frustration, he fed off that...Crowley looked at her hand first, then he shook it. "Crowley, a botanist, going to be working with your serpent." Crowley pointed at the serpent in the glasshouse./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Didn't know we were getting a botanist, when did you start? I missed a few days last week." Crowley nodded, being as pliant as he could, "Today. Might I inquire, is the doctor always so tense?" Crowley was watching Ezra, who had placed his head down on his desk. "No, he isn't, however since we received Crawley, it's been, well to be perfectly honest, strange things have happened." Crowley listened, "So you named the serpent Crawley and now have a botanist named Crowley working with it." Anathema tilted her head before chuckling, "I guess we do. Please, though, if you find something beeping, other than the machines kill it." Crowley nodded as Anathema stalked back to her desk. Regardless more tests were needed./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra got up from his desk, walking to the glass, looking up at Crawley. Crowley gazed at Ezra, making the snake slither out of the tree, and to him, Crowley saw genuine love for the serpent in Ezra's eyes. "Anathema, I am going to go in, check his scales, and such. I don't think it'll be a problem." Hesitantly she nodded, "Are you sure you don't want me to go in with the tranq just in case?" It was as he opened his mouth to speak that the alarms went off again, three in a row, every two minutes now. "Maybe he'll eat me, get rid of that damned beeping." Anathema shook her head, clicking a button her machines started spinning./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley watched as Ezra headed for the cage door, backing up he transferred himself into the serpent. Ezra came in, head down, and knelt on the floor, Crowley couldn't help but internally smirk at the submission. Slowly he slithered out of the tree and in front of Ezra. Ezra held his hands up, just in front of him to show no threat, Crowley put his head in Ezra's lap. Crowley felt his hands slide over his head, his scales, never further than what he could reach with his head in his lap. Ezra scratched at Crowley's head, sliding down the sides feeling for any loose scales, a few came off. Placing them into a little baggie for Anathema to run tests on./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Going to get up was something else, Crowley was enjoying the attention without having to try to get Ezra to touch him. It was then that thought the realization came to him. Crowley wanted him to stroke him; that was a first. He'd think on that later, right now though he needed to keep Ezra where he was. With a quick serpentine coil, he wrapped himself around Ezra, looking at him before putting his head back down. Anathema had seen what was going on, she started running for the cage until she saw Ezra's hand go up, pausing her. Ezra announced he was excellent, and apparently, Crawley wanted more pets./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra was more than happy to oblige Crawley, seeing as he had more area to go over since he was wrapped in the serpents coil. Ezra placed his hands on the top of Crowley's head, sliding down both sides of the serpents head following the coils that wrapped around him. Crowley purred a low rumbling sound that he didn't even know he could make, Ezra smiled, telling him he was beautiful. Crowley coiled slightly tighter around Ezra before releasing him and slithering back into his tree. Crowley was not sure he liked how he reacted to Ezra's touch; again, he would have to think about it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was at that moment that Crowley had wished he stayed out of the serpent and just let it be there. Getting ready to bring himself back out, the lab door opened. A man and a woman entered, they stood there, impatiently waiting for Ezra to come out. As Ezra left the cage, he looked more than distressed, as though his body was having a reaction to the people that just came in. Flicking his tongue out he could taste it, it was fear, it was anger, it was too many things balled into one emotion. Crowley could feel that Ezra wanted, no needed to run from whatever was going on. He watched, as soon as Ezra touched outside the cage, the man held out a pill in his hand, Ezra refused. The man looked at the woman and nodded, she held her hand up in the air, both Ezra and Anathema collapsed to the floor./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Writhing in pain, the man stood over Ezra, kicked him, and started rebuking him. Crowley couldn't hear what was going on, but as the next kick was lined up, without thinking, he launched himself at the glass. It hurt, but it stopped the man, raising himself to his full height, letting the sides of his coiled body flare out around his head, he was intimidating still behind glass. The man took a step back from Ezra, who eyed Crawley for a moment, the woman made a fist, Ezra curled in on himself. Crowley hit the glass again, cracking it, hands were held up, the pill forced down both mouths. They went quiet, both parties backed up and left the room, it was then that the place went dark, a flash of light, he felt the pulse, quickly snapping himself to the roof, counted to thirty and went back./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The lights came back on, he watched as Ezra and Anathema slowly stirred, eyes glazed over. Anathema glowed, a sparkling mist surrounded her, Crowley made a note, it was when something flickered near him, Ezra was standing facing him. Recognition? Fear, confusion, Crowley wasn't sure what he was looking at, Ezra's eyes were glazed entirely over, but behind that blue flames danced. Crowley definitely kept that in his forethought. Crowley watched as the two came back from wherever as though nothing happened, noting that Ezra held his side, not knowing why he was in pain. Anathema came overtaking the scales from Ezra, "Go home, Ezra, this happens every few weeks, go home rest, you probably haven't slept." From behind the plants, Crowley came out and said he would walk him home, he would return later. There wasn't much he could do until the glass was fixed./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra started to ask what he meant, and then he saw it, the glass was cracked by an impact from inside the tank about eight feet up from the ground. "Ezra lets just get you home." Ezra relented, allowing Crowley to bring him home. Crowley only went to the front of Ezra's house, he could feel another pulse coming, he watched as Ezra entered his home. Going home himself, he needs to collect his thoughts, maybe wait and see if Ezra fell asleep, see his dreams, perhaps that would give him answers or more questions, but either way, a visit was due to both up and downstairs again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley went back inside his house, he was going to make sure to dodge that at all costs, he couldn't afford to disregard it, not now. There was hope here, wait, hope, what was Crowley considering. Inaudibly and not very convincingly, he scolded himself, he was here to find out what was going on, nothing more. Still, he glimpsed out the window at the house next door, he had to acknowledge he had never gotten paperwork, let alone readings before. There had never been a mention of something like him, anywhere, ever. Crowley had never wanted to protect anyone before, in the entirety of his life. This was different, he was compelled to protect Ezra./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Grinning, he walked into his bedroom. He looked at the bed and groaned, still wasn't his "home," so sleeping here would be okay. Slithering into the bed, he looked at the ceiling, pointed here and there, the lights dimmed, but stars twinkled in the room. Gradually his eyes closed as he floated off to sleep. The breeze slipped in thru the shutters, calming him; he turned over and sat up. Golden eyes radiated in the darkness that encompassed him, it took him a few moments to register what occurred./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley's grace pulled on the darkness and reached outwardly, he discerned, something dragged him into a dream. Wait, he reached out again, someone was in his dream, he hadn't dreamt in a long time. Crowley climbed out of bed and began to walk in one direction, keep going in one direction. He should have been unsettled, but he was more fascinated, what was here. Crowley could have forced himself awake if he chose too, but he needed something to go on, so he could leave. Something ran down the middle of his back, his wings unfurled without his say so./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley shivered turning around immediately, his wings stretched out, fluffed, and settled against his back. A flash to his left of pure light caught his consciousness, he turned to it and observed. There was a form there, of something, Crowley walked closer, it was a figure, Crowley called out to it, trying to get its recognition. Whispers started, all around him, a language he couldn't catch; it was too old, even for him, or he had just forgotten it. Crowley stopped and frowned, understanding that was something he must have been made to forget./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The whispers overlapped with music, the music grew in volume, and the figure swayed for a moment and then slowly spun, it was dancing. Crowley got gradually closer, staying a bit away from it, not knowing what he was dealing with. Twisting and turning, gracefully spinning, hair flowing from her, floating as she spun. Then as she proceeded to spin, her wings unfurled, upper and lower wings stretched out, lined with phosphorescent white feathers, outlined in ebony starlit feathers. Crowley held in a gasp as he saw the wings, they were exceedingly beautiful to him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The wings opened and fluffed out a sudden stop, shaking out the wings, the figure stood there. Crowley felt the pulse from the outside world crawl by, it made him shiver, almost dragging him from the dream. Crowley turned his attention back to the female in front of him, well, the figure in front of him, for as he watched the form shimmered. Crowley watched as the female turned into a male, chains from somewhere grabbing onto his ankles, his wrists, Crowley watched as the wings pushed him up and fighting against the hold./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley watched in loathing as the chains erupted into flames. The man that was now being pulled back to the ground fought against them. The sound of the figure being slammed into the ground reverberated through the dream. Crowley tried to displace the dream, it was his, he watched as his mind made all change to the first thing he thought of, home. Oh, why did he do that, he thought to himself? The figure paused, the chains were gone for a moment, the figure started to turn towards Crowley, everything shifted back. Chains flew back out, grabbing the man, his figure changing between both genders, forcefully./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley was at a loss, he could only watch, he tried to run to them, but as soon as he tried, they shrieked, throwing a wall of holy fire towards him. It knocked him back and away. Crowley tried to figure out why and then he saw it; the chains were circling the being. Helplessly he watched, and then, it struggled once more to fly up, chains grabbed at its wings, pulling it back. With a shriek that would have rendered many angels or demons discorporated, the figure ignited fully into something he had never seen. The flames were black, divinity ran through them, hellfire covered its hands, and in the midst, the eyes were blue flames, glowing against the dark of the room./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Flaming feral eyes looked at him, wild and untamed, he could feel waves, pulses of feelings coming off the being. Frustration, anger, pain, bordering on insanity, desperation, it pulled at him, he could see it needed help. Then without warning, the being looked to the right and back to him. Crowley looked to where the eyes touched too, on the floor chained and not moving was an angel, an Archangel. Crowley could tell those quickly, he could sense them, same for demons, of any kind. Looking back at the being, he desired to get closer so he could see who it was, but he could hear the chains, closer to him, around him, circling./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The being, stretched out, with a scream, the chains flew around it, and black holy hellfire hit him in the chest. "WAKE UP!" Crowley gasped awake, sitting straight up, covered in sweat, he touched himself examining for any wounds. There were no actual injuries, but in the center of his chest, a mark was issued. It was black in the center, his eyes seemed to make out a symbol, whites, and reds within the black. "Well, that's enough of here for the moment." He snapped himself into dry clothes, his hair perfect again, he left the house, taking to the air before he stepped anywhere on the road. Crowley needed to clear his head, what had he just seen, how did that happen in his dream, or was he pulled into the beings' nightmare? He had questions, questions that needed answers, but as the sun breached the horizon, he decided Heaven first, Hell last, but one of them had some explaining to do./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra nodded, with a bit of a huff, "I'm sorry, did I do something wrong, Ezra?" Ezra's spine stiffened for a moment before looking behind him, never locking eyes with Crowley, his eyes reflecting off the darkened sunglasses, his eyes flicked from the glasses to Crowley's pout. With a resigned sigh, he shook his head, "No, not you, dear boy, they always seem to forget to inform me of changes to my lab is all, it's not you. Actually better that it is you, I at least know who you are." Sliding his card through the slot, turning his key, the lab opened. Crowley followed, letting Ezra lead the way. Ezra entered, stopping dead in his tracks, Crowley not paying much attention ran right into the back of him, nearly knocking him over./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley's arm slid around his waist, pulling him back up against him, Ezra caught his breath as he had started to fall. Crowley didn't fail to realize the position they were in, roles were currently reversed, he tilted his head slightly down just above Ezra's ear, "Guess this makes my us even on debts, Ezra?" Ezra nodded his head, a shiver running the length of his spine, feeling the warmth of his name being breathed out over his ear. A wicked grin slithered over Crowley's face before he slid his arms around and away from Ezra's waist, purposely letting his fingers press just slightly against him. What was supposed to bother Ezra, had the same effect on the one doing it, ever thankful for his sunglasses whenever the angel was involved./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra stood back up, trying to shake the storm in his spine away; he looked between the two work areas, flicking his eyes to Crowley for a moment, then back to the work areas. "Everything okay, Ezra?" Ezra said nothing just nodded and looked to the very far right at the back of the room, a station had been set up, verdant, and greenery abounded there. "Oh, I see..." Ezra was abruptly cut off. BEEP...BEEP...BEEP! With a deep, defeated sigh, Ezra shook his head, "What's the beeping?" Crowley looked around as though he wasn't the one that had done it. "I don't know, I guess it's going to be a thing, get used to it, if you can." Ezra walked to his desk on the wrong side of the lab, looking at Anathemas work station where he should be, and smelling the new organic life in his lab./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley walked over to his "station" checking on his plants that he had snapped up to the lab. He needed to look busy at least, finally sitting, staying just behind some plants he spied on Ezra, who was doing his best to ignore the unexplainable. There were the beeps again, he watched as Ezra's head popped up every time they went off, he was amused. That was until Anathema walked in, seeing her work station, then seeing a new work station, she unraveled faster than Ezra, who was banging his head on his desk ever so gently as another wave of beeps happened. Anathema stalked over to Crowley, who was purposely ignoring her stares from across the room. "Anathema Device and you are?" she stuck her hand out, he could feel her frustration, he fed off that...Crowley looked at her hand first, then he shook it. "Crowley, a botanist, going to be working with your serpent." Crowley pointed at the serpent in the glasshouse./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Didn't know we were getting a botanist, when did you start? I missed a few days last week." Crowley nodded, being as pliant as he could, "Today. Might I inquire, is the doctor always so tense?" Crowley was watching Ezra, who had placed his head down on his desk. "No, he isn't, however since we received Crawley, it's been, well to be perfectly honest, strange things have happened." Crowley listened, "So you named the serpent Crawley and now have a botanist named Crowley working with it." Anathema tilted her head before chuckling, "I guess we do. Please, though, if you find something beeping, other than the machines kill it." Crowley nodded as Anathema stalked back to her desk. Regardless more tests were needed./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra got up from his desk, walking to the glass, looking up at Crawley. Crowley gazed at Ezra, making the snake slither out of the tree, and to him, Crowley saw genuine love for the serpent in Ezra's eyes. "Anathema, I am going to go in, check his scales, and such. I don't think it'll be a problem." Hesitantly she nodded, "Are you sure you don't want me to go in with the tranq just in case?" It was as he opened his mouth to speak that the alarms went off again, three in a row, every two minutes now. "Maybe he'll eat me, get rid of that damned beeping." Anathema shook her head, clicking a button her machines started spinning./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley watched as Ezra headed for the cage door, backing up he transferred himself into the serpent. Ezra came in, head down, and knelt on the floor, Crowley couldn't help but internally smirk at the submission. Slowly he slithered out of the tree and in front of Ezra. Ezra held his hands up, just in front of him to show no threat, Crowley put his head in Ezra's lap. Crowley felt his hands slide over his head, his scales, never further than what he could reach with his head in his lap. Ezra scratched at Crowley's head, sliding down the sides feeling for any loose scales, a few came off. Placing them into a little baggie for Anathema to run tests on./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Going to get up was something else, Crowley was enjoying the attention without having to try to get Ezra to touch him. It was then that thought the realization came to him. Crowley wanted him to stroke him; that was a first. He'd think on that later, right now though he needed to keep Ezra where he was. With a quick serpentine coil, he wrapped himself around Ezra, looking at him before putting his head back down. Anathema had seen what was going on, she started running for the cage until she saw Ezra's hand go up, pausing her. Ezra announced he was excellent, and apparently, Crawley wanted more pets./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra was more than happy to oblige Crawley, seeing as he had more area to go over since he was wrapped in the serpents coil. Ezra placed his hands on the top of Crowley's head, sliding down both sides of the serpents head following the coils that wrapped around him. Crowley purred a low rumbling sound that he didn't even know he could make, Ezra smiled, telling him he was beautiful. Crowley coiled slightly tighter around Ezra before releasing him and slithering back into his tree. Crowley was not sure he liked how he reacted to Ezra's touch; again, he would have to think about it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was at that moment that Crowley had wished he stayed out of the serpent and just let it be there. Getting ready to bring himself back out, the lab door opened. A man and a woman entered, they stood there, impatiently waiting for Ezra to come out. As Ezra left the cage, he looked more than distressed, as though his body was having a reaction to the people that just came in. Flicking his tongue out he could taste it, it was fear, it was anger, it was too many things balled into one emotion. Crowley could feel that Ezra wanted, no needed to run from whatever was going on. He watched, as soon as Ezra touched outside the cage, the man held out a pill in his hand, Ezra refused. The man looked at the woman and nodded, she held her hand up in the air, both Ezra and Anathema collapsed to the floor./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Writhing in pain, the man stood over Ezra, kicked him, and started rebuking him. Crowley couldn't hear what was going on, but as the next kick was lined up, without thinking, he launched himself at the glass. It hurt, but it stopped the man, raising himself to his full height, letting the sides of his coiled body flare out around his head, he was intimidating still behind glass. The man took a step back from Ezra, who eyed Crawley for a moment, the woman made a fist, Ezra curled in on himself. Crowley hit the glass again, cracking it, hands were held up, the pill forced down both mouths. They went quiet, both parties backed up and left the room, it was then that the place went dark, a flash of light, he felt the pulse, quickly snapping himself to the roof, counted to thirty and went back./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The lights came back on, he watched as Ezra and Anathema slowly stirred, eyes glazed over. Anathema glowed, a sparkling mist surrounded her, Crowley made a note, it was when something flickered near him, Ezra was standing facing him. Recognition? Fear, confusion, Crowley wasn't sure what he was looking at, Ezra's eyes were glazed entirely over, but behind that blue flames danced. Crowley definitely kept that in his forethought. Crowley watched as the two came back from wherever as though nothing happened, noting that Ezra held his side, not knowing why he was in pain. Anathema came overtaking the scales from Ezra, "Go home, Ezra, this happens every few weeks, go home rest, you probably haven't slept." From behind the plants, Crowley came out and said he would walk him home, he would return later. There wasn't much he could do until the glass was fixed./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ezra started to ask what he meant, and then he saw it, the glass was cracked by an impact from inside the tank about eight feet up from the ground. "Ezra lets just get you home." Ezra relented, allowing Crowley to bring him home. Crowley only went to the front of Ezra's house, he could feel another pulse coming, he watched as Ezra entered his home. Going home himself, he needs to collect his thoughts, maybe wait and see if Ezra fell asleep, see his dreams, perhaps that would give him answers or more questions, but either way, a visit was due to both up and downstairs again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley went back inside his house, he was going to make sure to dodge that at all costs, he couldn't afford to disregard it, not now. There was hope here, wait, hope, what was Crowley considering. Inaudibly and not very convincingly, he scolded himself, he was here to find out what was going on, nothing more. Still, he glimpsed out the window at the house next door, he had to acknowledge he had never gotten paperwork, let alone readings before. There had never been a mention of something like him, anywhere, ever. Crowley had never wanted to protect anyone before, in the entirety of his life. This was different, he was compelled to protect Ezra./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Grinning, he walked into his bedroom. He looked at the bed and groaned, still wasn't his "home," so sleeping here would be okay. Slithering into the bed, he looked at the ceiling, pointed here and there, the lights dimmed, but stars twinkled in the room. Gradually his eyes closed as he floated off to sleep. The breeze slipped in thru the shutters, calming him; he turned over and sat up. Golden eyes radiated in the darkness that encompassed him, it took him a few moments to register what occurred./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley's grace pulled on the darkness and reached outwardly, he discerned, something dragged him into a dream. Wait, he reached out again, someone was in his dream, he hadn't dreamt in a long time. Crowley climbed out of bed and began to walk in one direction, keep going in one direction. He should have been unsettled, but he was more fascinated, what was here. Crowley could have forced himself awake if he chose too, but he needed something to go on, so he could leave. Something ran down the middle of his back, his wings unfurled without his say so./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley shivered turning around immediately, his wings stretched out, fluffed, and settled against his back. A flash to his left of pure light caught his consciousness, he turned to it and observed. There was a form there, of something, Crowley walked closer, it was a figure, Crowley called out to it, trying to get its recognition. Whispers started, all around him, a language he couldn't catch; it was too old, even for him, or he had just forgotten it. Crowley stopped and frowned, understanding that was something he must have been made to forget./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The whispers overlapped with music, the music grew in volume, and the figure swayed for a moment and then slowly spun, it was dancing. Crowley got gradually closer, staying a bit away from it, not knowing what he was dealing with. Twisting and turning, gracefully spinning, hair flowing from her, floating as she spun. Then as she proceeded to spin, her wings unfurled, upper and lower wings stretched out, lined with phosphorescent white feathers, outlined in ebony starlit feathers. Crowley held in a gasp as he saw the wings, they were exceedingly beautiful to him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The wings opened and fluffed out a sudden stop, shaking out the wings, the figure stood there. Crowley felt the pulse from the outside world crawl by, it made him shiver, almost dragging him from the dream. Crowley turned his attention back to the female in front of him, well, the figure in front of him, for as he watched the form shimmered. Crowley watched as the female turned into a male, chains from somewhere grabbing onto his ankles, his wrists, Crowley watched as the wings pushed him up and fighting against the hold./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley watched in loathing as the chains erupted into flames. The man that was now being pulled back to the ground fought against them. The sound of the figure being slammed into the ground reverberated through the dream. Crowley tried to displace the dream, it was his, he watched as his mind made all change to the first thing he thought of, home. Oh, why did he do that, he thought to himself? The figure paused, the chains were gone for a moment, the figure started to turn towards Crowley, everything shifted back. Chains flew back out, grabbing the man, his figure changing between both genders, forcefully./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Crowley was at a loss, he could only watch, he tried to run to them, but as soon as he tried, they shrieked, throwing a wall of holy fire towards him. It knocked him back and away. Crowley tried to figure out why and then he saw it; the chains were circling the being. Helplessly he watched, and then, it struggled once more to fly up, chains grabbed at its wings, pulling it back. With a shriek that would have rendered many angels or demons discorporated, the figure ignited fully into something he had never seen. The flames were black, divinity ran through them, hellfire covered its hands, and in the midst, the eyes were blue flames, glowing against the dark of the room./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Flaming feral eyes looked at him, wild and untamed, he could feel waves, pulses of feelings coming off the being. Frustration, anger, pain, bordering on insanity, desperation, it pulled at him, he could see it needed help. Then without warning, the being looked to the right and back to him. Crowley looked to where the eyes touched too, on the floor chained and not moving was an angel, an Archangel. Crowley could tell those quickly, he could sense them, same for demons, of any kind. Looking back at the being, he desired to get closer so he could see who it was, but he could hear the chains, closer to him, around him, circling./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 17.199px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The being, stretched out, with a scream, the chains flew around it, and black holy hellfire hit him in the chest. "WAKE UP!" Crowley gasped awake, sitting straight up, covered in sweat, he touched himself examining for any wounds. There were no actual injuries, but in the center of his chest, a mark was issued. It was black in the center, his eyes seemed to make out a symbol, whites, and reds within the black. "Well, that's enough of here for the moment." He snapped himself into dry clothes, his hair perfect again, he left the house, taking to the air before he stepped anywhere on the road. Crowley needed to clear his head, what had he just seen, how did that happen in his dream, or was he pulled into the beings' nightmare? He had questions, questions that needed answers, but as the sun breached the horizon, he decided Heaven first, Hell last, but one of them had some explaining to do./p
