Chapter Text
Corporations were all the rage in Hell these days, at least the sort of corporations that they were using now- Beelzebub, who had previously occupied a swarm of flies, had adopted a body rather like that of the humans, and now the other demons were following their lead, though some had opted for puppet bodies controlled by a fragment of their corporation contained in a much smaller body like that of their chosen animal aspect. All of this, of course, was a bit of an experiment and would over time be honed, but the point was that when Crawly went Downstairs to let his superiors know that he’d gone and gotten the humans thrown out of the Garden, he actually didn’t know who anyone was and was left standing in the middle of a dark cavern watching torchlight flicker against damp walls while complete strangers milled around him.
He was finally- after a long, boring eternity of waiting- approached by a tall figure with long matted hair and skeletally thin, disproportionately long limbs, and a swarm of flies surrounding them.
“Lord Beelzebub?” he hazarded, and was rewarded with an affirmative buzz- corporeal language was also a brand new thing that everyone was getting used to, and Crawly was better at adapting than his fellow Fallen. Still, Beelzebub wasn’t the Prince of Hell for nothing, and their message came across loud and clear despite the lack of coherent language. “Right, I’ll just- yeah.”
He followed them through the many tunnels and passageways that made up the labyrinth of hell, past hundreds of wall paintings that flickered in the permanent low light and gave the impression of various monsters forming from the walls and ready to devour the onlooker whole- given that this was Hell, after all, this wasn’t such a farfetched idea.
Crawly was led, eventually, to the throne room, which was a surprise. More surprising was that it was actually occupied; their Lord was known to disappear for ages at a time and only drop in to do His job occasionally, but now here He was, lounging on His throne with an air of leisure that Crawly could only dream of achieving.
“You may go, Prince Beelzebub,” He said, once Crawly had been brought in.
“My Lord,” they murmured, bowing and slinking out, the cloud of flies buzzing after them, though Crawly didn’t miss that a few lingered at the edges of the doorway. Judging by Lucifer’s smirk, He didn’t miss that either, but He dismissed this and turned His full attention to Crawly.
“Crawly!” He held his arms wide, and patted the arm of His throne. “Come. Sit. Tell me about the Earth- tell me about the humans. I want to know everything- you got them thrown out of the Garden, I hear? Superb work, superb. I knew I chose well sending you up there.”
“Right,” Crawly muttered, slithering obediently up to take his seat on the arm of the throne as bid. He had to change his form briefly for it, but he was getting better at it, slipping from one to the other as fluidly as… whatever it is that moves fluidly between two states. Water? That didn’t sound right. It felt weird sitting here like this, like he was some sort of pet or particularly well-behaved child, but he sensed that if he was very careful, something good was about to come his way. “You liked my work, Lord?”
“It was a stroke of genius, darling! You exceeded my expectations tenfold!” He reached out one clawed hand and ran it along the edge of Crawly’s jaw, to his fiery ringlets, and hummed in amusement. “This is a nice corporation. Do you like wearing it?”
Unbidden in Crawly’s mind came the angel, the way he’d complimented Crawly’s choice on the wall when they’d discussed the bodies they’d been given, and a flush came to his cheeks before he could stop it- hmm, that wouldn’t do, he needed to get better at controlling this body’s habits.
“It’s… not bad. Pinches a little, but I think if I make a few adjustments- add a few extra vertebrae, make the hips a little less… hippish… it’ll do nicely. Why do you ask, my Lord?”
He winced instinctively, but felt none of the usual displeasure that came from Questioning- Lucifer had always encouraged his Questions, he was all right, he could ask, though there was no guarantee that he'd get an answer- but this time, Lucifer just chuckled and said, “Because I have a job for you, and you’ll need your corporation for it.”
For some reason the suggestion in Lucifer’s voice made his heart pound- he considered willing it away, and settled for concentrating on making sure it knew better than to do that. But this was it, he knew- whatever happened next was going to change the entire course of his life from here on out.
“I want you to stay on Earth,” Lucifer said, running a hand through Crawly’s ringlets again, twirling them around bony fingers. “I need someone to guide the humans in my name, and whoever I send up will need to be adaptable enough to follow their growth, and able to stay up there long term- you won’t get many chances to come home, after all.”
Crawly did his best to keep his reactions in check, and said, “I- I would be honored, Lord. This is- you’re trusting me with something so much bigger than me.”
“Yes.” Suddenly the fingers in his hair tangled and tightened, gripping tight. “But you aren’t going to disappoint me, are you, Crawly?”
“N-never, Lord,” Crawly hissed, trying to lean into a grip just this side of painful. “I’ll make you proud. You’ll sssee! You’ll have so many ssssouls you won’t even know what to do with them.”
“Good, good.” He let go of Crawly’s hair and Crawly slunk aside, coiling as best as his form would allow. The hand was back now, petting him again, and he tried not to flinch away. “Good. Now- tell me about the humans.”
-/-