three. video. id: the Outsider. later tonight.

[crypdick]

[ It's traditional, when asking simple, broad questions to the Network to do so in a text post but that's not nearly melodramatic enough for the Outsider.

He's in the desert in the outskirts of Jeopardy, night has fallen and he's looking not at the communicator but up at the stars. There's some faeries nearby he's bribed to leave him alone with pizza, but they make it cold enough you can see his breath glittering on the air. ]

The places you come from are varied, where even the things that you take for granted may be different here, or for other imPorts. Even this reality is changing week to week.

With that in mind, I have a question for you.

[ Now he turns to look at the comm, eyes empty and black. He tilts his head. ]

What do you think makes a god a god?

(( And regular reminder that if you respond with video, you are completely free to include a vision for him to see if you want! ))

Comments

video;

[goodtobebad]

Probably anyone who has to ask, definitely isn't one.

The only God I know is distant and Ineffable. Hasn't talked to anyone in centuries.

[crypdick]

That's an assumption, isn't it? Are you sure?

[ After all, he's asking. ]

But as for conversation, perhaps yours hasn't found someone worthy of their conversation.

[goodtobebad]

If the Almighty found Her creations so wanting, all She had to do was make new ones.

And yeah, I'm pretty sure. Besides, a god would never be so thoughtless as to get themselves kidnapped.

[crypdick]

Wouldn't that be dull? To make things exactly how you'd like them, with no room for mystery or surprises.

Now you'll just make me feel bad.

[goodtobebad]

[ Crowley just snorts. ]

Well yeah, presumably that's why She didn't do it that way. 's why humans have free will. 'Course, then She can't complain when they do things She doesn't like.

[crypdick]

If she hasn't spoken to anyone for centuries, then she hasn't been complaining, has she?

[goodtobebad]

Touche! But - as I said, ineffable. Nobody really knows. Nobody can know.

[crypdick]

An ineffable being that has been keeping quiet and unknowable, and yet you sound very certain that she exists at all.

[goodtobebad]

Well, yes. I've met Her. Worked for Her, even. Back in the day. Or rather, back before days.

[crypdick]

[ He rolls with that information fairly well - the idea of someone working for a god or even living that long is not that difficult of a leap. That last big, though. ]

Before days?

[goodtobebad]

Yep. [ This is actually something he doesn't talk about much. It's not really fun? Thinking about before he fell. ]

I mean, did that confuse you? The time before time? The formation of the universe? The Almighty didn't do it all alone.

[crypdick]

Let's just say that I have seen a world remade, but never created. [ He's a god, but not God with a capital G. ]

So what does that make you, exactly?

[goodtobebad]

[ Some beings just have terribly big egos. ]

Oh, I'm a demon. One of the Fallen Angels, specifically the Serpent of Eden, embodiment of original temptation, etc. etc.

[crypdick]

So you're a demon. Now I know what I'm so often accused of being.

[ There aren't any demons where he comes from and he'd be miffed about it if he cared. ]

[goodtobebad]

It's not a bad rep, if you can get it. What'd you do, look at someone funny?

[crypdick]

Maybe it's something in the eyes.

[goodtobebad]

[ Crowley grins and dips his sunglasses down a bit. Snake eyes! Literally! Maybe not as scary as soulless black orbs or whatever, but hey. They're cool. ]

Might be!

[crypdick]

[ The Outsider is not unmoved but he doesn't particularly look moved. ]

So "serpent" was literal.

[goodtobebad]

Sure, more literal than most humans give it credit for. Honestly, some of them thought I seduced Eve. I'm not that kind of demon. It was a bloody apple.

[crypdick]

I'm unfamiliar with the story. What purpose did the apple serve?

[goodtobebad]

Knowledge of good and evil.

Oh, you need the whole story.

So, God made the world, and then She made a garden, and put the first two humans, Adam and Eve, in it. They could do whatever they want - they named the animals and frolicked and whatnot. But there was one fruit tree they were forbidden from touching. God put it right there in the middle of the garden, beautiful thing it was, and told them not to touch it!

Well, the inevitable happened.

[crypdick]

Humans are always drawn to the forbidden. I assume that was the idea.

[ He would have done it on purpose.]

[goodtobebad]

Nobody knows what the idea was, because God isn't in the habit of explaining Herself.

Like I said: Ineffable.

[crypdick]

Then call it a guess, coming from someone who is often ineffable myself.

[goodtobebad]

[ Crowley shrugs. ]

My guess is, things got away from Her, and She's too proud to admit it.

Then again, I'm one of the Fallen, so my opinion doesn't count for much.