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[ Just like that, he's back in Wonderland and memories come flooding back. This is the first time he's truly left and come back and it's even more jarring than he'd expected.

For a moment, he just looks around his room, examining things and checking that all of his belongings are just where he left them. When he gets to his dresser, he pauses at the drawer with the false bottom. It's not until his fingers are sliding over the little vials of blood that he registers what he's doing and he slams the drawer shut with an angry bang.

Then he finally steps outside of his room and into the floating void that contains chunks of Wonderland. ]

Bollocks.

[ video ]

[ He pulls out his device with a sort of haste reserved for near-death experiences. ]

Not sure how long I've been gone, but you seem to have gone to pieces without me.

[ Oh, he is hilarious, isn't he? ]

Is anyone out there or is this some sort of cosmic irony? Because irony's only funny when it's not happening to me.

[ Private message to Sam Winchester and Castiel ]

Boys, I'd like a word if you're still alive.

[ Private message to Blake ]

I need to talk to you.

[ action ]

[ And then he sets about floating himself from chunk to chunk and looking for signs of life as he waits for a response that may never come. On each new chunk of mansion, he walks with a caution that speaks of endless possibilities--none of them good. This could be an event, but it could also be the end. For all he knows, he's even further along than the people who came back from the future. ]

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It's not just you. Everybody's laughing at this one.

_{[Hey, Crowley. This is Adam's way of trying to say "hello" and "I haven't forgotten you hung up on me" and "oh, you're not dead" at the same time, not that he'd actually noticed with all that much awareness that Crowley had vanished. He's not that great at keeping track of people in between lunatic murderers, Michael, and now the world... well, literally falling apart.

He'd been alive long enough to see previews for that 2012 movie with John Cusack. This is a lot like that, and it's a tad distracting, though you wouldn't be able to tell from his collected tone of voice. He's dealing, nothing to see here.]}

Do demons have little bat wings to fly around with?

No, but if you'd like to imagine it that way, I suppose it could add a bit of flavor to the whole experience.

[ Adam's scared, jaded little act lets him get away with a lot in Crowley's book when it comes to manners. Getting annoyed with Adam would be like getting annoyed with a traumatized puppy for peeing on the carpet. Sure, it's annoying, but it's part of the package and Crowley likes dogs, anyway. ]

Why? Do you need someone to fly over to you?

_{[For all Adam knows, the bat wings could be a real thing. Angel wings aren't exactly a visible thing most of the time, either.

His answer to the question is most definitely a resounding no, though. Well... maybe a yes if this shit gets a fraction worse (land breaking up into a bunch of floating chunks is already enough to play with a person's mental health). But for now...]}

No. Just checking if you have any other handy solutions besides salt.

_{[Since Crowley seems like the know-it-all and everything.]}

That's me. Supernatural handy-man.

[ Crowley smiles and it's just this side of flirty, but he manages to hold back jokes about cleaning Adam's gutters. ]

Why? Do you have other inconvenient problems? I might have solutions.

_{[Also a bit of a smug asshole at times, too. Crowley is that kind of monster who's combined handing out assists to normal, human danger magnets with that kind of attitude Adam's come to associate with non-human creatures who could leave a guy high and dry if they wanted.

That's pretty much every monster he's ever met in a nutshell. Crowley, on the whole, has done more to help him than most of them combined, but getting cute with him on the phone when Tom the neighbourhood serial killer had been on the loose deserves a turn in kind.]}

I'll pass this time.

_{[Thanks but no thanks on the cryptic advice. Though it should be no big secret that Adam has a dump truck of inconvenient problems--Crowley could take his pick.]}

Where'd you go?

Back to my world. Lived another year of my life and now I'm here again. Ta da.

[ He's not quite unhappy to be here again. This place is at least more stable and safe than anywhere else, but it's lacking in certain things, too, and the things here don't carry over there. They don't even count. It resonates so much with him after spending that long away.

It's only been a week. ]

Have you ever gone home from here?

_{[How very Little Mermaid. Adam can't even say Crowley's world is his world, because he's been on his way deeper and deeper downstairs while from what he understands Crowley's been on the express elevator up.

Same country, maybe, but still in different zip codes.]}

Oh, is that all?

_{[The question strikes him as odd, but only because from his own perspective if he had to go back to the Cage, he probably wouldn't recognize time passing him by. Things don't change much down there, either. Same old, same old. Not a home, just the same march through time as ever.]}

Don't think so.

I think you would know. It seems like every other week someone disappears and shows back up forgetting Wonderland, but I think most of us remember what happens where we go when we leave and come back. It's Wonderland that gets forgotten.

[ Which is wholly depressing, given the fact that Crowley's life here is quite a bit more grounded. This place is oddly safer, or it was before Christmas. Now, he's not so sure, but he has no choice on where he goes, anyway, so he'll simply aim for caution regardless. ]

It's a bit strange, this back and forth. Guess I should just be happy I haven't forgotten Wonderland.

_{[All the talk of losing memories and missing time has been just that for Adam--talk. What he's heard is mostly just rumors from the network, and he's been able to check out from those conversations as much as he likes. It's been nothing hard-hitting for him, so he absorbs Crowley's assessment mostly in silence.

Adam doesn't really find the idea of forgetting and bouncing around all that depressing. It's difficult to depress him any more than the current state of affairs allows, anyway.]}

I take it you forgot, too.

_{[Before he might have suspected Wonderland's impermanence had to do with the fact that it was just a delusion, one big, unreal dream, but now that he's accepted he's probably not imagining everything, Adam finds he cares about the real answer less and less.

After a pause, he asks:]}

Miss us?

I couldn't remember Wonderland a bit until I returned, no.

[ It's strange and jarring to suddenly remember all these things that you've forgotten for a year and Crowley's changed so much in that year, but he'd changed a lot in Wonderland, too. Everything blurs together and if he thinks about any of it too much, he feels overwhelmed with trying to process it all, let alone figuring out a timeline of the events in both places and what came first. ]

Once I was back, I might have realized that some of you enhance my life in ways that no one really does back there.

[ In short, yes, in some ways he very much had missed them. ]

_{[Adam's glad he can't speak from experience. Too alien to think about his memories getting all jumbled up like that, too complicated. His plate is full enough without a second helping. Besides, what's a demon got to cry about? Whether they live up to the myth or not, things that aren't human seem to Adam to be a tougher breed than human beings, if not always smarter or wiser.]}

Wow, that's almost touching. You remember talking to me? Lucky you, you missed out on the last of the serial killer murders.

_{[That had been the last time he'd talked to Crowley, when the demon had couched a piece of advice that might or might not be true in a jackass hang up. Real convenient that the guy had toddled on home after all of that.]}

No, I didn't. I was still here when it was over. I'm the one who put a bandaid on the problem.

[ And he'd like credit for that, thanks. He's always getting blamed for the bad things, but he wants credit for the good things and they never seem to be giving that out, do they? ]

You managed to survive it all, right?

[ From someone else, it might seem like he's concerned. ]

_{[Wait. A... bandaid? What did that mean?]}

I thought Dean shot him.

_{[Confusion creeps into his voice. Even if the Winchester name wasn't so popular amongst supernatural creatures, Crowley had to know who Dean is through the Wonderland gossip grapevine, right? Everybody knows who his brother is, don't they? Angel hadn't exactly added a side note for Crowley in his network message, just mentioned Dean. How had the demon been involved in all of that when he'd acted like he didn't know who was behind it?]}

... Yeah, he kept clear of me.

_{[Said with less enthusiasm than one might expect from the survivor of a murder spree, but getting a heads up at all is thanks to Crowley. For that, Adam can safely say Crowley's helped him twice now. Three times if he counts keeping him company while the Weeping Angels stalked the place.

Adam counts his survival as a good thing, and Crowley gets credit where credit is due for that.]}

Dean did shoot him and then he came back, because Wonderland gives use a few free deaths. When he came back, I was waiting to pop the hood and take a look at the engine.

[ Of course Dean gets all the bloody credit. He doesn't even try to keep the disdain from his voice when he says Dean's name. ]

Consequently, he's a bit patched up, but I wouldn't turn my back on him if I were you. He's got one of the most frightening human minds I've ever seen.

[ Crowley doesn't know what happened to him, but whatever it was, it could be an inspiration for Hell. ]

_{[Another person who's not a big fan of Dean? Take a number, Crowley, Adam's got first dibs on hating on the guy.]}

What, you're some kind of soul expert like the angels? They hired you to de-psycho him?

_{[Popping the hood and mucking about inside a person sounds an awful lot like what the angels can do, what Castiel and Gabriel had both done to him once upon a time. But did Dean know this demon? Why put Crowley on the job and not someone like Castiel?

And what did "patched up" mean, exactly? Probably not the kind of patch job the angels had used to glue Adam's soul back in one piece.]}

Those are big words for someone who's been in the pit. _{[The implication has Adam curious, in a foreboding way.]} What's wrong with him?

Couldn't tell you if I wanted to. I'm no shrink. Whatever's wrong with him, out goes deep.

[ hrs giving away more than he would to most people, but just a less than what he's given his more stable allies. ]

But no one asked me to do this aside from the Tom we saw who came back from the future a few months back. I'm no Angel, but I know souls. They're my business. This was more about mind than soul, though.

No, but you can possess people. Right? Take them over. Get inside them.

_{[Or whatever the equivalent is for angels like Michael who bury themselves in so deep, nothing about the original person feels like it exists anymore aside from tatters. Isn't that pretty damn close to head shrinking somebody? Without the soul, you wouldn't a mind to go with it... or something. Adam's more a survivor than an expert.]}

He asked you to mess around with his head?

_{[In this case Adam wouldn't mind if there was an off switch in Tom's head to turn off the part that made him feel like he needed to go apeshit on everyone. But if a version of Tom from the future had already known to plan ahead...

His frown is audible in his voice.]}

If that asshole knew enough to ask you, why didn't anyone stop him from turning into Michael Myers?

[ Crowley actually flinches at that question. It's a touchy subject given everything that happened between himself and Blake. Very touchy. ]

Mistakes were made.

[ He clicks his tongue. ]

There's no sense in dwelling in the past, is there? It's been a year for me, even if it hasn't been that long for you. It's done and over with, alright?

[ This is the touchiest he's been with Adam about anything and whether Adam makes assumptions about why or not, he doesn't care. The only person who truly knows is Blake and he'd like to keep it that way. ]

_{[Uh huh. Spoken just like an archangel. "Whoops, people died, my bad!"]}

Sure.

_{[The opposite, actually. He's pretty sure there's not enough excuses in the world to explain away how a mistake like that happens, but this is what monsters do: they bullshit. Crowley's been more decent than most, even saved Adam's life, but he's not stupid enough to believe they're talking innocent mistakes here.

The only assumption he makes these days is that supernatural creatures have their own agendas. The ones who don't are exceptions to the rule.]}

I bet that's going to go over great with him and all the people he took down.

I was following his orders from the future, so at the end of the day, those people who died can be angry, but he's got to live with his own mistakes, just like the rest of us.

[ Just like Crowley, who views his mistakes more in the consequences they bring him than in what is good or bad. He feels some measure of remorse, but even with his more human feelings, he's more upset by his consequences than by true guilt in this moment.

That is, of course, subject to change as Wonderland seems to enjoy rendering him all but human regularly. ]

_{[Adam's not sure what he should believe or who he should be more wary of, Crowley or Tom.]}

He told you not to do anything? From the future?

_{[If Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come had known this would happen and had had time to come back during the holidays and hint around that normal Tom would need his head checked out, why the hell wouldn't he have slipped a "by the way, you should stop this" in there?

In Adam's opinion, five years isn't enough for your memory to go hazy over a mass murder you've committed, any more than one year out of Wonderland would.]}

He did.

[ Crowley inclines his head back a little, narrowing his eyes at Adam. ]

If you want my honest assessment, I think Tom's a highly manipulative prick. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or angry about the whole thing, but you can't tape a broken egg back together. It's done now.

[ Crowley's attempting to be practical here. He made a mistake, but in the grand scheme of his life, it's hardly a noteworthy one. ]

_{[That's some impressive mistake. His tone is wry, but he saves the heavy dose of judgement he's nursing.

This has got to be a special quality of angels and demons--sitting back and letting shit like this happen.]}

Next time a psycho killer asks you to let him run around, just take the chance and muzzle him before you go on your vacation, huh?

_{[Because you all are hell on Adam's nerves.]}

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