middaeg | (catch-all)(closed) the days don't stop coming

Entry tags:

(catch-all)(closed) the days don't stop coming

Who: Aziraphale & Others (closed prompts!)
When: various points of Aguril.
Where: specified in prompts.
What: catch-all log for the month.
Warnings: language, unfortunate TF stuff, UST, suspicious flowers, temporary paralysis, non-suspicious flowers, two cats & a turtle.

art by

decalian1!

( CROWLEY | CROWLEY (FULL MOON) | LEVI | SIEG )

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It seems to be a bit of a "battery" situation.

( piping up. that is how he has been understanding it after having the whole discussion about the differences between witches and beastfolk. aziraphale had taken all of it to heart. including the fact that it was apparently very easy for witches to avoid any such issue. it was the beastfolk who were disadvantaged. )

I had it very thoroughly explained to me during the first few days here. By a very nice young man, mind you. He did explain that the bond between a witch and beastfolk was the best to make. As witches generate magic energy that needs to be expelled and the beastfolk require it in order—

( unfortunately, he is making crowley's case for him. the both of them were a different type where a bond between them was mutually beneficial. )

Ah. To stave off lunacy. There is the risk of going feral underneath the moon.

( one of the more annoying and frustrating parts of being cursed to a mortal existence was the constant and regular need for income. aziraphale had spent the entirety of the previous month working in a bakery, which was very enjoyable and fulfilling work, but he hadn't been hired on to remain as a permanent employee. he did understand that, of course, they had their pick between skilled applicants and aziraphale simply didn't have the same sort of experience underneath his belt.

as a result, he had decided to try his hand at taking up some of the advertisements he had seen in the morning news paper. which, interestingly enough, had brought him out to the freezing cold in search of a rare deer with another young gentleman who seemed to be more suited to the task than himself. actually, he wondered if he needed be there at all.

but he was here, wasn't he?

he turns towards the gentleman to his right. )

You wouldn't happen to have any experience in tracking. . . animals, would you?

Yeah, well, what else am I gonna do angel? Can't exactly leave you.

[ It's simply not an option. He tightens his arm around Aziraphale, tucks him comfortably so he can rest one cheek against his pale curls and holds him into his neck. He feels warm. Crowley tries not to think about the smell of blood, about the race of Aziraphale's heart. He can't think about that right now, he just needs --

Just needs both of them to be safe. ]

We're a team, yeah? Always you and me, balancing things out.

( no, he could never imagine so. however grim and terrifying things might get as aziraphale's transformation into one of the beastfolk steadily continues, aziraphale didn't expect for crowley to abandon him. he expects for him to be there in one way or another. that's always how it has been. crowley always seemed to appear in the right time and place to aid him even if it were to his own detriment.

it had never stopped him. it likely wouldn't stop him now either.

which aziraphale knows to be a problem since this isn't quite like all the times before. if something happened to crowley because of him, because of this, then there wasn't any way that he could fix it. they had to be careful—crowley more so than himself, mind you—but they couldn't continue to simply roll the dice and hope for the best. )

What is it that they usually do? To the werewolves in fiction?

( he tries to sound neutral as he poses the question, but the hitch in his breath is obvious while his face is pressed against crowley's neck. he's tucked well enough into him to hear the erratic beat of his pulse.

he shifts then, moving to slowly work his arm around crowley's shoulder to return the embrace. )

Lock them in the cellar, isn't it? At least until it passes?

Somethin' like that.

[ Crowley eases into a more comfortable position, lets out a soft sigh as Aziraphale's arm comes around him in turn. His hand sweeps up and down the angel's back in slow, steadying strokes. ]

You don't worry about that, though. Let me worry about it for you, yeah? Cellar will be the last resort. Bound to be plenty of other things we can look into first. That wolf fellow we met when we arrived seemed pretty together. Maybe he knows something.

( that's right. there had been a bonded pair in the looking glass house who had been giving everyone an overview during that first day here. unfortunately, aziraphale hadn't exactly been in the right state of mind to give the proper attention to their explanations. he had picked up a decent amount from it, of course, but much of it felt like noise against the growing panic in his chest.

much like the panic he feels now. but, the hand against his back does help. quite a lot.

he lets out a soft sigh against crowley's neck. )

Mr. Ainsley? I suppose he wouldn't—

( —be against sharing his expertise.

that's what he had intended to say, but all he manages is a choked noise as pain rockets down his spine. all at once, he feels like he's being pulled apart and he immediately reaches for the only thing within reach: crowley.

his claw-like nails bite into him harshly, digging into the skin underneath crowley's clothes as he clutches at him like crowley is the only thing that could possibly keep him steady. his body is shifting again, tailbone elongating into a proper tail and aziraphale thinks he might scream.

he can't. he shouldn't. crowley is too close.

so he bites, sinking his sharp teeth into crowley's flesh. )

[ Oh.

Aziraphale tightens his grip on him, nails digging into skin, and Crowley clutches Aziraphale closer in response -- tries to sooth him with the closeness of their bodies. ]

Angel --

[ Is all he manages before something else happens.

Before Aziraphale... bites him.

According to most werewolf lore Crowley knows, that's how it happens. He suppose if that's true then... well, at least they'll be werewolves together? Might be nice. Could run around the moors terrorising people, or doing whatever it is werewolves do between acts of terror. The problem is the biting part does actually hurt. His hands flex in their grip, breath hitching sharply as he tries to ignore it. Aziraphale is probably hurting more, and although Crowley as a rule is very against anything that registers on the pain scale or puts him in danger -- well. Aziraphale has always been an exception for things.

He would, however, rather not have his throat ripped out if possible. So probably need to get the biting under control. ]

Angel? Please...

[ Voice a little... more strained than usual, although now that the initial sharp pain is over with Crowley thinks he can live with this. It's not so bad. ]

( there is something deeply satisfying about having bitten crowley. aziraphale couldn't think to describe it even if he were more sound of mind, but it makes something within him sing. like a call answered or an inch scratched and he barely recognises that crowley is speaking to him at all.

it takes a long moment, a moment spent with his grip still impossibly tight around crowley and his teeth still embedded in him, before understanding starts to seep back into his head. understanding of where he is, what he's doing, and the sound of crowley's voice as he asks him to—

let go.

oh.

aziraphale flinches, ears flattening against his head. he has to fight against the urge to jerk back, afraid of what damage he might accidentally cause if he were to move too quickly. instead, he takes care to slowly extract himself from crowley's neck. )

C-Crowley! I'm so sorry-!

( his words come out in a panicked rush, syllables nearly blending together. he doesn't know how to apologise enough, how to even begin making amends for what he's done. oh, and he's done something so terrible. what was he even supposed to do now? how could he explain it? he doesn't know, but the sudden slam of guilt thoroughly yanks his focus away from the pain along his back and the way his new tail flicks against the edge of the mattress anxiously.

to make matters worse, he can see blood beginning to bead along the freshly created wound. he has to at least do something about the damage he'd caused. anything. )

Let me—

( that's all he says before dunking his head downward again, but this time not to bite. no, he drags his tongue over the bite mark he had created in a desperate and mindless attempt to at least stop the bleeding. )

[ Oh.

He doesn't --

Crowley feels slightly dazed by the rapidly unfolding sequence of events, by the rush of adrenaline from the pain and the sensation of --

Of everything happening. Which is quite a lot. ]

Nnngh. 'M fine.

[ Isn't he? He's probably fine. How hard did Aziraphale bite him, anyway? His hands run restlessly up and down the angel's back, trying to soothe his fretting even as Crowley tries to process that he's been bitten by someone with furry ears. This isn't really... something in his wheelhouse, so to speak. Not a thing he knows how to react to.

The licking feels a bit much. ]

( if aziraphale didn't know any better, he might think that his heart was trying its damnest to pound its way straight out from underneath his ribs. everything feels as if it were happening both a little too fast and a little too slow and he can hardly breathe. the only thing that keeps him any kind of focused is the frantic need to try to fix what he had just done.

his grip gradually begins to loosen, unhooking his claws from crowley's person before he accidentally creates another injury. or had he already? he couldn't tell and he was honestly terrified to find out.

he pulls away from crowley once more with a frown, moving to press the sleeve of his nightshirt against the wound. it was already ruined anyway, it hardly mattered if he made it worse with crowley's blood as well. )

Are you? I hadn't meant to—

( bite.

except he had. somewhat. it's hard to pin down. he had also bitten him pretty hard to top it off.

he really should get crowley out of the room. anywhere but where he is. )

It. . . Might be best if you were to leave.

( one of the nastier beliefs of the past had been that children should enter the workforce early and earn their keep rather than spend their time in school where they truly belonged. they had worked long hours at brutal, demanding jobs and the idea of it had never sit right with aziraphale. factories and the like were not a place where any child should be.

humans were such fragile things. the pittance of money they were offered for the work was hardly enough to justify the damage done to their health. it was more than disheartening to see that aefenglom still practiced such a thing. it made sense, of course, considering that many things here were outdated (even by his standards), but disapponting nonsense.

his face pinches as he turns over to his company for the day. they've talked to both some of the lords as well as the children and it was feeling more and more horrid to side with the lords. )

How do you feel about this? This— ( he makes a loose hand gesture. ) —situation with the children?

[ mortals, am i right? with their "employment" and their "dying," who do they think they are??

anyway, sometimes you just gotta do random odd jobs to get by. it's not convenient, but he's not used to anything being convenient, anyway. most of them also carry a much lower chance of dying a horrifying death (mortals), though, so that's a plus. the only problem is that he's extremely good at what he usually does and not a lot else. there's never been a reason or even an excuse to branch out from that.

not until he ended up here, anyway. now, he's been charged with plucking fruit off the antlers of a live animal so he can deliver it to some place he has never been called Worse Dragon because it's like some kind of weird sex thing, he thinks, what the fuck. in any case, he certainly does have experience tracking... other things, but less so animals. animals have never been the problem. ]

Not exactly. Can't be much more complicated than looking for tracks and fur and shit, though, right?

[ and by "and shit," he means actual shit. he's not very excited about this. ]

[ Ah.

Lunacy.

The risk of going feral.

Crowley glances sideways at Aziraphale, weighing up this statement. ]

Well, that doesn't sound fun. The lunacy bit. Can't have you howling at the moon, wouldn't get any sleep.

[ Gently wording things as if the problem is Very Small, Not A Big Deal, avoiding the dangerous areas of potential real emotion. This might be easier if they make it... less serious, after all. Even if Crowley's mind is already a frantic whirl of thoughts over... bonding. ]

( his expression tightens, eyebrows knitting together. he doesn't like the flippant way that crowley is talking about this. as if it were something small! something that was more of a nuisance rather than life threatening. )

I don't think you're taking this seriously enough!

( which was exactly the problem, wasn't it? he wasn't giving this the sort of gravity that it truly warranted. it didn't seem like that for himself either. although he did mention exploding, but it's hard to tell how much stock he put into it. aziraphale, himself, possibly wasn't either. he already knew how serious his own situation was from all the unwanted bodily changes and the upsetting explanations, but—

that wasn't really the case for crowley. was he even really experiencing anything out of the ordinary? he feels like he hasn't seen anything. had there been anything to impress the idea of how important it was to stay on top of his new bodily needs at all? beyond, of course, someone simply telling him to.

crowley wasn't very good at doing things simply because he was told to. )

What if you got hurt? By me? I mean, we are living under the same roof.

( as far as excitement went, the both of them were in complete agreement. aziraphale was not all that enthused either, but the options were rather limited. limited and most of them highly dangerous. there was yet to be any suitable compensation that would drive him to consider willingly endangering himself. most likely never would be either.

this, at least, shouldn't be too bad. how much issue could a deer present?

although, it is a pity that this gentleman isn't any more versed in hunting animals than he is. )

Something like that, yes. Although, I suppose that might be a bit difficult to find fur in this sort of weather.

( that is with snow on everything. tracks should be simple enough, shouldn't it? he isn't going to start a search for the third item on the gentleman's list. )

Should we start with tracks? I believe we passed by a creek earlier. Perhaps that might be a good place to start?

[ Crowley scrunches his face at that, as if dismissing it. ]

You wouldn't hurt me -- and if you did I probably deserved it.

[ If he did, one of two things has happened:

One, Crowley has performed some action that has provoked Aziraphale into violence. So he deserves it.
Two, Crowley has been reckless around Aziraphale in... whatever possible lunacy situation the changes might put him in. Again, he'd deserve that. ]

You'll be fine, angel. We'll do this bond thing then you'll have it all under control, no problem.

[ Leave?

Crowley, breathing a little heavily from... well, the adrenaline and pain and actual blood now, lifts a hand to vaguely hold Aziraphale's against his neck. ]

Dunno where you think I'm gonna go, angel. Besides, someone probably needs to help me clean up this bite and you're the nearest person. How you feeling? Still hurt?

[ Crowley is, obviously, also hurt but if they need a minute to work out who is hurting less that's... fine. That's fine. How heavily is it bleeding, he wonders? He can't really tell how deep the bite was. Is he in shock? He has no idea. What does shock feel like? He's never really felt the physical aspect of it before, but he can smell the blood -- Aziraphale's, his. Distantly Crowley is starting to wonder how long it would take for him to change, if he's going to. To wonder what he'd do if Aziraphale just lost control and ripped apart his corporeal form. No frolicking through the moors as a pair of werewolves after that, can't come back when you're in pieces.

Maybe that's why Aziraphale is telling him to leave. Maybe he's already feeling that urge.

Crowley leans into Aziraphale again, trying to steady himself. Maybe that would be fine. If anyone was going to kill him, after all, he'd rather it was Aziraphale.

Probably Aziraphale wouldn't want to, though. That might be a problem. He'd be upset afterwards. ]

—Right. Albino. Must've slipped my mind.

[ god. why couldn't they just be purple or something? what a pain in the ass. ]

And I'm sure finding shed antlers would be way too convenient. We might as well backtrack.

[ he knows the way, at the very least. getting lost out here would be deeply unfortunate. ]

That's a terrible mindset to have! I can't imagine you'd have done anything to deserve getting hurt!

( he couldn't agree with any of that at all. did crowley even think about what he was saying? how could he possibly deserve it? it could very well happen simply by merit of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

his gaze flicks back after crowley when he mentions the bond again, clearly hesitant. )

I—Well, I suppose. You do also need a bond to help regulate.

( he would rather not figure out what it meant to explode or whatever other strange side effects witches had. clearly, it was not as bad as the beastfolk, but he did imagine it still wouldn't be a walk in the park.

and he did want his bond to be with crowley. if he were going to choose anyone. he did, truly. he just felt uncertain and conflicted about the whole thing. was it a good idea? he hardly knew what the experience would be like and it did seem to be a very emotionally powerful thing.

on the other hand, there is a part of him (which he still assumes to be from his tiredness) that insists he should do it and keep crowley close. where he should be.

he tugs at his sleeves. )

Yes. Just for now then. We should still explore other avenues, of course, but I would hate for something to happen before then.

( aziraphale can feel it.

the ragged way crowley breathes, the race of his pulse, the pounding of his heart, and the unsteadiness of his hands. it feels nightmarishly human, delicate and vulnerable in ways that just feel wrong to him and—

he had caused it. he had caused it and crowley had the audacity to ask him how he was doing. he feels bewildered and overwhelmed and he thinks he might forget how he's supposed to breathe. how could it matter how he felt? he did feel better, which was an uncomfortable realisation, but that should hardly be the concern. crowley shouldn't be asking, neither should he still be trying to hold him close. )

Out! The other room! A-anywhere!

( somewhere he didn't run the risk of being bitten again. aziraphale couldn't say that he wouldn't bite again. he hadn't even thought he would do it the first time, so how could he predict the second? or more?

his hand falls away to rest against crowley's collarbone, letting aziraphale press his face against him unhindered. )

Anywhere but here.

( said quietly, misery clear in his tone.

he just needed some time to collect himself so he could tend to crowley's wound. he had been right when he said he needed someone to care for it and there wasn't anyone other than aziraphale here. unless he were to call someone?

but he feels an immediate revulsion to the idea. he doesn't want anyone else here. what was wrong with him? he couldn't keep thinking that way.

he lets out a frustrated sigh, muffled against crowley's neck. )

I'm sorry.

I don't wanna be anywhere but here.

[ Just putting that out there.

The bite is still a problem, though. Crowley eases his hand away from his neck now that Aziraphale's has dropped, looks at it to gauge how red it's turning. ]

Hey -- how about we find something to clean this up, and maybe I can clean those for you too. Yeah?

[ He makes a vague gesture to Aziraphale's head. The ears. Not that Aziraphale can see, when he's trying to bury his face against him and pretend this all isn't happening. Not a bad idea, honestly, can't blame him for that. He loosely drapes his arm around the angel, then Crowley catches sight of a slight motion and flick down to the mattress.

Ah. There's... that too. A tail. He's -- faintly sure they make cartoons about things like this. Erotic cartoons. Not quite so erotic now, is it? His eyes rip themselves back up to some vague, indistinct point and he tries to focus. Right. Cleaning things up. ]

Maybe something for the pain if you still need it, yeah?

[ There, a normal suggestion. Suitable for normal injuries. Nothing unusual or stressful, just need to clean up and take some painkillers. ]

Course, angel, we'll see you sorted out. Think there's some folk at the festival or whatever doing bonding rituals. Can probably go get it set up.

[ Oh.

Right now?

Apparently, right now! Crowley gives the window display a last glance before looking back to Aziraphale and offering him a bright smile, tilting his head questioningly. Well? ]

Won't even make you wear the dress.

[ Of course not, he'd look better in one anyway. ]

Edited (repetition ) 2020-09-05 18:00 (UTC)

[Sieg has a weird relationship to children, which is that he's only really ever known one and she was a collection of souls that made up a murderous little girl.

Does he have any idea what kids are supposed to do? Not really.]

Is this how children are supposed to be treated...? It doesn't seem right.

[Were these kids even given a choice? Was this the only way for them to earn a living?]

( oh.

right now?

aziraphale had thought that he would have a little or perhaps a lot more time before the both of them were to actually go ahead and make a reality of it. didn't they need to prepare? wasn't there much to be done? it was a ceremony, after all! surely, they at least needed to have better clothes prepared!

while crowley might be smiling, aziraphale can't help but look a little panicked and cornered. he thinks about backing out or trying to stall it. that would be the best option, wouldn't it? another day, perhaps? week?

no, if he pushes it back, he might not stop. )

I—Well. Haha.

( he laughs, weak and nervous. )

It's not, ah, a wedding or anything.

( but, isn't it? )

Do you know with whom we should be speaking with?

Crowley.

( said with irritation in his voice.

there was something to be said about crowley's unending willingness to foolishly throw himself right into dangerous situations. not that aziraphale was particularly fond of acknowledging himself as one of those said dangerous situations, but there was no avoiding it, was there? he was a dangerous element and inescapable one at that. there was not much escape when the two of them lived together.

really, he needed to find a different place to spend the evenings during the full moon. there had to be a hotel or a hostel that could he relocate himself to for just the night. not that it mattered right now. he was here tonight for the duration and the most important thing that needed to happen in this moment was to tend to the injury he had left on crowley. it wasn't going to get any better just because he had apologised. )

In the bathroom. We have some supplies.

( slowly, he starts to pull himself off of crowley to sit up on the bed. or at least as well as he can. he had felt better near immediately after sinking his teeth into crowley, but he still felt a little light-headed and off-centre.

he offers a cautious hand to crowley in case he felt the same way. )

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(catch-all)(closed) the days don't stop coming

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LEVI ◈ MID AGURIL ◈ ANTLER FRUIT

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SIEG ◈ MID AGURIL ◈ HAZARD AT THE HARBOUR

wow this took forever i'm sorry

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s'all good

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