[open video/action with a few privates]

[goesdown]

[ 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. ]

Comments

[goesdown]

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.

[halfwinchester]

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?

<sub>[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.]</sub>

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

[goesdown]

[ 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. ]

[halfwinchester]

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

Sure.

<sub>[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.]</sub>

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

[goesdown]

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. ]

[halfwinchester]

_{[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?

<sub>[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.]</sub>

[goesdown]

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. ]

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[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.]</sub>

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.]}