Eustass Kidd for Pirate King

in the beginning was the word.

Crowley things sometimes, both their bosses forget that. For as much as they look down at human things - thinking themselves better. They too, where created with just a word.

Just a word, spoken before time began. One day, all of the celestial host existed, and functioned smoothly, like a well oiled machine. Crowley has no idea if there where prototypes before them; in the end, he suppose it doesn't matter, but he does wonder. and then some times he wonders if they where the prototypes to humans. god worked out al the bugs with them, and then cast them off to make the next thing. he knows that's what Lucifer felt. at least, that's what Lucifer wanted them all to think. Crowley's not sure anymore.

in his own, ethereal way of thinking, poor Aziraphale is the only one who gets it. He still has his faith, something Crowley caste away long ago. but Crowley's not sure his friend sees the almighty as its own entity. somewhere along the way - the system became the Almighty for him, the creater just the ceo at the top. and like many poor souls at the bottom, he still thinks the almighty has their - humans and lower angels alike - best interests at heart. he still thinks that if the almighty is mad aware of the injustices, they'll right it all worth a word.

because Aziraphale believes there word of god is law, and can create and unmake in the same breath. angels are no higher than humans, because both were spoken into existence, and both can be unmade just as easily. he was a witness to the Fall from heaven, just as he has witnessed the destruction of some many lives on earth.

to him - the flood was equal to the Fall. Crowley .. can't actually talk him out of that reasoning, and in his own dark way. he agrees. the why is different, but the vaule o angels and humans are equal. she tosses them aside just as easily as he was.

Aziraphale would never call himself brave - he believes though and through to be a coward. A survivor. But a coward.

It breaks Crowley's heart evey time. Evey time he sees his angel stumble for wards, painful twist up on himself in doubt. An angel, who fills every moment of his spare time, buried int he words of men, finds them lost to him when he reaches for them in his time of need.

Crowley sees how he second guesses himself at every turn, self doubt heave on his ever action. he wants to be good - to do good and to bring comfort to those around him. and Crowley sees that he *does*. Aziraphale's instincts, his actions, are always an attempt to better the lives of the humans he interacts with. in that regard, he is selfless in a way few creatures are.

and his good deeps are often mocked by his betters just as much as by his enemies. angels and demons alike sneer at Aziraphale, and Crowley sees quickly that it would have broken him early if left to fester. Aziraphale became a creature of comfort in his attempt to comfort the humans. they taught him the joys in little earthly delights, his main currency centuries later in his dealing with them. the angels don't understand, they think he's sullying himself. but the other angels also scare the bejezzus out of humans, and get a lot of them myrter for their zealot behavior. and Aziraphale will always be a little otherworldly, but he can bless their lives and nudge them into their path set out by ' the great plan' without damaging their minds beyond repair.

it's a lot easier to get humans to listen to each other if the idea is something a human worked out on their own. a message from God works for a select few, yes, but those humans lives are short and miserable. and those ideas will get push back from the moment voiced until they fade finally into obscurity, no mater how good of an idea it was.

there is a strange solidarity to protest, heaven and hell learned. The human's ability to form their own opinions inevitably meant they would eventually disagree with each other on matters. The first time it happened, both sides stopped to see what would happen - what the Almighty, blessed or cursed be their name, would do.

after all, it's what split heaven in two in the first place.

the almighty ultimately did nothing at all, leaving the humans to squabble it out. sometimes they found reconciliation int heir ideas, mostly they did not.

but... even then, many times they still went right along living besides each other anyway. the Hoards and Host alike where dumbfounded.

no wonder, they both would decide, that earth became such a violent, war ravaged world - allowing people to keep dissenting options without punishment. what was the Almighty thinking?! as awful as the war and Fall had been, at least it had given relative peace to both realms. everyone knew their place now, and they certainly knew better than to entertain /ideas/ or /options/

The Almighty does not make mistakes, but this 'free will' business of Hers was a sorry, messy experiment to watch, and the End could not come soon enough.

in the middle of it all, though, field agents for both sides where moved by how passion at humans would get about /ideas/, often around what they viewed as gross miscarriages of justice. how vocal, and even physically, they would argue to what they believed to be a betterment to society, on both sides. as removed preternatural entities, it was often hard to gauge with what side, if either, they should be backing, often finding faults in both sides arguments, yet also recognizing that the systems in place where not going to work - even if the suggestions being pushed where just as lopsided.

Still, every time a crowd of heavy emotions gathered, and the humans surges together against each other, angels and demons alike where drawn to it, to both sides.

And... one day, some of them would even start to understand what a marvelous and terrifying thing at Tree of Knowledge had truly been in the end. And even without ever taking a bite themselves, they too would slowly have their eyes open to it by the End.